Medical negligence compensation claims

Are you still in pain after an operation? If you have had an operation to relieve a particular condition, then you will usually be told to expect a certain amount of pain and discomfort as you recover. Ideally your doctor will have given you an indication of how long this should last.

But, what if you are still suffering discomfort long after the expected recovery period? Or, what if a different sort of pain has arisen which seems related to the operation?

Sadly, on occasion, mistakes are made during surgical procedures and sometimes post-operative care can be of a poor standard and lead to on-going problems. In either of these circumstances, if the injury, pain or illness was someone else’s fault then you may be entitled to compensation for illness and suffering caused as a result.

The law provides for compensation if you can show that on the balance of probability there was negligence in your treatment which directly caused your injury.

Each year the NHS and the insurers of private healthcare providers have to pay compensation for a wide range of medical negligence situations, such as:

1. leaving 'foreign bodies' under the skin is a surprisingly common occurrence in operations, with objects left behind including such items as swabs, a catheter and metal clips;
2. ‘botched’ cosmetic surgery for example where the results of an inexperienced surgeon may be only too visible;
3. failure to diagnose a particular condition which then remains untreated leaving problems which may have been averted;
4. an allergic reaction to a drug or material, such as latex, which was clearly indicated in the patient records; or
5. unintended damage during keyhole surgery, where misdirection by a few millimeters can have serious consequences.

Medical negligence claims are complex by nature and require specialist understanding and experience. Contact us for a confidential discussion of your eligibility to pursue a claim.

For more information contact Paul Finn