Our medical negligence team, led by Debra Woolfson, has recently had some great successes in settling claims for clients* who have suffered because their treatment was not to the standard that it should have been.
While we have recovered financial compensation for the clients, the team has also been able to get much needed acknowledgements of wrongdoing from the various hospitals. These have allowed our clients to move on from their experience.
| Treatment and Diagnosis Failures
Our client came home from a holiday abroad, with a sore foot that began to blister.
His GP sent him to the hospital, where he expected to get admitted for treatment. Sadly, the hospital failed to do the tests that they should have done. Those tests would have led to a diagnosis of necrotizing fasciitis (a flesh-eating disease, that was eating away at his foot).
Our client’s wife had the presence of mind to take photos of the foot over a period of 10 days. During this time, our client attended the hospital as an outpatient for dressings and medication. The photos showed a frightening deterioration. But, despite pushing for further help, this was denied to him. The hospital sent him home every night until they admitted him as an emergency.
He had to have many operations and skin grafts. He would not have need these if the hospital had done the tests and diagnosed the condition earlier. The photos were great evidence to counter the hospital’s suggestions that they had done nothing wrong. And that even if they had, this would not have changed the outcome for our client.
We settled our client’s claim with the hospital. We also got the acknowledgment for him that he needed that he had not received the treatment that he should have done and allowing him to move on from his ordeal.
| Misdiagnosis
Our client is a lady in her 80’s, who had just recovered from some health issues when she found a lump on her neck. Through her GP, she was referred to the hospital, who took a biopsy.
She was given the horrendous news that she had a malignant tumour. The doctors advised her that she needed major surgery to avoid the tumour killing her.
Our client did not want the operation, but was persuaded by the doctors and her family to give herself a chance of living longer.
The operation caused damage to her face and her hearing. If the operation had been necessary, this would not have been as significant an issue for her. However, at her follow-up with the doctors, she was told that the pathology lab had mixed up the biopsy samples. In fact, she had a non-cancerous growth that could have been left without any further treatment at all.
Having a face-to-face meeting with Debra helped the client to cope with the stress of the litigation. Such stress she clearly did not need on top of everything else.
In addition to compensation, our medical negligence team had success in obtaining an apology from the hospital for what had happened to our client. This helped, as did her financial settlement. The team stayed in contact with her after the case finished, and it seems that she is doing everything that she can to regain her confidence and to get out and about, as she did before being the victim of such poor treatment.
If you would like to find out how Debra and her team can help you or a loved one, call her on freephone 0800 988 7756.
*Clients’ names and the amount of their settlements have been left out of the summaries above for confidentiality purposes.
