Tom Gibson appears in successful amputation claim

Tom Gibson appeared recently in a successful (and complicated) amputation claim, brought by a patient against her local hospital and her GPs.

In 2008, the claimant (then in her 50s) required surgery at her local hospital to fix a fractured femur. The operation failed, with revision surgery being required just 20 days later.

This led to a very long and unfortunate chain of events: four years later, in 2012, the claimant required her sixth knee operation, to attempt to reconstruct her extensor mechanism. After that operation she developed a wound infection. As her GPs failed to refer her back to hospital, she later required five further operations to attempt to eradicate the infection from her knee joint.

The infection could not be eradicated. Eventually, after all other options were exhausted, the claimant (now in her 60s) had an above knee amputation at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in 2016.

Claims were brought against the local hospital (for the performance of the first operation in 2008) and the GPs (for their failure to refer the claimant back to hospital promptly in 2012). The hospital denied liability while the first GP admitted it.

After an earlier settlement against the hospital, the remaining claim against the GP was compromised at a joint settlement meeting in November 2018, ahead of the 12-day High Court trial listed for February 2019. The combined value of the settlements was in excess of £1 million.

The claims involved interesting and difficult issues on causation and on how damages should be apportioned between concurrent tortfeasors.

Tom was instructed by Ali Cloak at Royds Withy King.

To instruct Tom or to find out more about his expertise, contact healthclerks@outertemple.com.

News 28 Nov, 2018