Carla Duprey settled a case for a Claimant who had sustained injury due to a negligent delay in arranging spinal surgery.
Case Details
The Claimant had a history of back pain. Following an MRI Scan in 2018, a spinal surgeon recommended that the Claimant required an operation (multilevel laminectomy and decompression) to treat his spinal issues. However, prior to undergoing surgery, he would need to be cleared by the cardiology team.
Following investigations, the Cardiology team confirmed that he would need to have a coronary angiogram prior to his spinal operation. A letter was sent to the waiting list co-ordinator, on 20th April 2019, requesting that the angiogram be arranged urgently. The angiogram was eventually performed on 6th December 2019, but no steps were subsequently taken to arrange the Claimant’s spinal operation.
On 24th March 2020, the Claimant suffered a significant deterioration in the extent of his back pain, his legs became weak and he became incontinent. He attended Hospital and was diagnosed as suffering from cauda equina. He had emergency decompression surgery the following day.
Sadly, due to the delay in the surgery being performed, the Claimant has suffered permanent neurological deficits. His mobility has been significantly affected. He has bilateral foot drop and has no ability to move his ankles/feet independently. He has significantly impaired strength and sensation in his lower limbs. He suffers from numbness and paraesthesia and his legs feel very cold, with marked muscle wasting of his lower limbs and skin changes. Due to sensory changes, the Claimant often does not realise when he has damaged his lower limbs in some way. His lower limbs become very painful and throb, especially in a seated position. He cannot stand without support and struggles to transfer and access areas of his house. He has to use a wheelchair, and an adapted car with hand controls, to get around.
The Claimant has suffered a complete loss of sexual function, a neuropathic bladder and has altered bowel function.
The Claimant’s neurological deficits have had a significantly detrimental impact on his daily life, his personal relationships, his social and leisure activities and on his general mental health and well-being. He has been able to return to completing his own personal care tasks, but is unable to carry out any domestic tasks and has needed to employ a cleaner. He has been unable to return to work and gave up his job in mid-2020.
How Been Let Down helped
The Claimant approached us in March 2021 to investigate his clinical negligence claim. After carrying out initial investigations, allegations of negligence were identified and were sent to the Defendant. In September 2022, the Defendant admitted that there was a failure to arrange for the Claimant to have an urgent angiogram. They admitted that, in the absence of negligence, the Claimant would have had an angiogram within 6 weeks of the request being made in April 2019. It was further admitted that the Claimant would have subsequently undergone his spinal surgery before his deterioration in March 2020 and, on the balance of probabilities, he would not have developed cauda equina syndrome.
Following the Defendant’s admission of liability, steps were taken to value the Claimant’s case. Due to the extent of his injuries, a number of expert reports were required to assess his condition, his likely prognosis and financial losses.
A settlement was achieved, in March 2025, in the sum of £1,085,000 for the Claimant’s pain and suffering, past and future additional care and assistance, past and future aids and equipment, loss of earnings, pension loss, alternative accommodation and future treatment and therapy.
