£12,000 settlement following errors with pacemaker

Posted 17/03/2015

Julie Crossley, a clinical negligence specialist at Ashtons Legal, has obtained a £12,000 settlement for Mr C who ended up with a wound infection, additional surgery and almost three weeks without his pacemaker in 2010, all of which could have been avoided.  

Mr C attended his local cardiology department for a routine battery change for his pacemaker. This was not well positioned and he asked to have it re-sited, which was agreed. Before this surgery took place, he developed a chest infection and was still being treated with steroids for the after effects of this when he was admitted for the battery implant to be re-sited. The operation went ahead but Mr C then developed a wound infection and ended up having to have the pacemaker removed while the infection healed and then re-inserted on the other side.

Julie Crossley comments: “While the eventual outcome is the correct one, the process by which it was achieved was unnecessarily drawn out and costly. This claim was relatively straightforward and comparatively low value.  Attempts were made by us on behalf of Mr C to reach a sensible settlement agreement in 2012 and again in 2013. These were refused by the National Health Service Litigation Authority (NHSLA) so we were forced to issue proceedings and the case was due to go to Court this month.  Just seven days before the trial was due to start the defendants decided to settle the case. It appears that there is an increasing reluctance to settle cases sensibly and early on; this delay is unhelpful to the injured person and a waste of public funds.”