Settlement obtained for delayed treatment

Posted 18/01/2011

Julie Crossley, a lawyer in the Ashtons Legal medical injury team, has obtained several thousand pounds compensation for a lady in her 70s who has been left with serious scarring following the failure of a consultant dermatologiest to treat a cancerous lesion in a timely manner. Mrs W was initially prescribed treatment for an itchy skin rash known as ‘lichen planus’ on her leg and was due a progress review a month later. However, in spite of the intervention of her GP, she was not seen by the specialist again for almost two and half months from the time of the original treatment. By this time her leg was substantially worse; although the initial symptoms had been treated successfully she had developed a secondary infection and additional symptoms were evident. The cancerous lesion was eventually removed almost three months later and Mrs W now has a substantial skin graft and scar. Experts believe that with appropriate timely treatment the skin graft would not have been required and the scarring much smaller.