£11,500 for negligent treatment of foot injury

Posted 26/11/2012

Ben Ward, a medical injury solicitor at Ashtons Legal, has obtained £11,500 for Mrs T, who now has substantially less functionality in one foot than would have been the case with appropriate and timely treatment. Mrs T went to the Accident and Emergency Department of her local hospital having injured her foot.

Instead of taking an x-ray of her foot before treating her, the doctors just strapped her toes and sent her home. She was still suffering pain over a month later and returned to the hospital. This time an x-ray was taken, following which she received appropriate treatment from the fracture clinic. However, by this time she had developed a hammer-toe deformity and required more complex surgery than would have originally been the case. 

Ben adds: “Correct diagnosis of this orthopaedic injury just required an x-ray, and then correct treatment would have followed. Failure to take an x-ray has been an expensive mistake both in terms of Mrs T’s mobility, medical time spent rectifying the situation, and the legal costs involved in her claim. It is the sort of mistake which could and should be preventable.”