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£15,000 in damages for client affected by surgical negligence
19 October 2020
Our 21 year old client injured his left knee ligaments playing football in 2016. He subsequently needed surgery in 2017 to reconstruct his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). On 5th October 2017 he had surgery and over the following few months he believed he was recovering.
By June 2018 things had started to deteriorate and he was unable to perform a squat and had uneven thigh diameter. He consulted with the surgeon who originally performed the knee surgery. X-rays of the knee revealed that, although the knee was in a satisfactory position the femoral button had not been deployed correctly. An MRI was arranged and several clinic appointments followed. Over the period of time between the x-rays in December 2018 and December 2019 when he was finally operated on again to correct the incorrectly deployed femoral button he experienced pain and suffering and was unable to carry out his ordinary activities.
True Solicitors investigated the claim fully and submitted it to the hospital Trust where our client’s initial surgery was done. Despite delays due to the COVID pandemic we obtained a full admission of breach of the hospital’s legal duty and an admission that the negligence had caused our client pain, suffering and loss of amenity. We were able to secure a settlement figure of £15,000.00 after the Trust in question accepted that if a post-operative x-ray had been performed at the time of the original surgery in 2017 it would have immediately identified the incorrectly deployed femoral button and steps would have been taken while our client was still in hospital following the surgery, so he would not have had over a year of pain and suffering before the mistake was corrected.
Solicitor Comments:
This client was very young when he was injured and his knee surgery ought to have been straightforward, allowing him to return to his ordinary daily activities quickly and with ease. Recovery from surgery in young patients is often easier and quicker than with older patients. Unfortunately in this client’s case the surgery was not successful. This is quite common and the problem, a femoral endobutton being deployed in the knee in the wrong way, is relatively common as well. The issue in this case was that the doctors did not properly follow up our client’s surgery with x-rays to check that the endobutton was in the right place, so that his knee would work properly and painlessly.
Had the surgeon asked for x-rays to complete the case, to ensure that the surgery had been successful, our client would have avoided months of pain and suffering as well as the loss of his ability to play football and to carry out his other hobbies, which was a big loss for him.
In this case the NHS Trust quickly admitted that the surgeon had breached his duty of care to our client and the case settled quickly as well, which was good for our client so that he could get on with his life.
Read more about making a claim for surgical negligence here.
