Case studies

We are reviewing the case of a lady who has had disappointing results from a face and neck lift (rhytidectomy and platysmaplasty).

We are currently investigating a claim concerning a failed breast augmentation procedure.

A 54-year-old woman has received £3,500 for the injuries she sustained as a result of negligent IPL (intense pulsed light) hair removal treatment in August 2012. She suffered mild superficial burns to her arms, with peeling and dyspigmentation, which resolved within three to four months. The burns were initially very painful and obvious and affected the claimant’s confidence. She required personal and domestic assistance for two weeks and was unable to fully enjoy a holiday following the accident as her arms had to be constantly shielded from the sun.

We have dealt with a case where abdominal surgery led to complications that ultimately cost our client her eyesight. The surgery regrettably resulted in perforation of her jejunum and she spent a month in an intensive care unit.

We are advising on a case relating to the standard of ophthalmic treatment our client received during an iridotomy, performed to correct ‘narrow angles’, which left her vulnerable to developing glaucoma and possible eyesight loss.

We investigated and resolved a claim arising from poorly performed evisceration surgery (eyeball removal) under local anaesthetic. This was undertaken without considering the patient’s complicated ophthalmic medical history of repeated retinal detachments.

We are investigating a claim for a lady who presented at A&E 16 weeks pregnant, having experienced bleeding throughout her pregnancy. A scan the previous week had revealed a large placenta. After waiting some time, our client was reviewed by a junior gynaecologist, who proceeded to perform a physical examination using forceps. We believe that in doing so, the junior doctor may have caused our client’s membranes to rupture.

We represented a client in a claim against her surgeon for failing to obtain her consent properly and for exercising poor surgical technique when performing a columelloplasty procedure, resulting in a significant deformity in her nose.

We are investigating a potential negligence claim for a lady who had a disappointing result from face lift surgery. She developed prominent swelling on her jawline soon afterwards, which was syringed by her surgeon. He prescribed antibiotics and suggested that the swelling may have been a foreign body reaction. Our client returned to him several times as the swelling did not improve. After various treatments had failed, she underwent a biopsy and a hair was found in the swelling. It had become infected, causing the problem.

We investigated a case relating to an elderly woman’s delayed diagnosis of lung cancer, from which sadly she died, on behalf of her husband. She attended Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital with a severe and persistent cough and was given a chest X-ray which was reported as normal. Subsequent consideration of the X-ray demonstrated that it in fact showed an area of abnormality and extra density behind the heart and therefore warranted further investigation. Those treating her thought that our client’s wife had an ENT related problem and referred her to an ENT physician, who was unable to find anything of concern and discharged her from his clinic. Her health continued to decline and she underwent a second chest X-ray two months later. Following this X-ray, lung cancer was diagnosed but it was too late to offer anything other than palliative care.

We have settled a claim relating to the surgical evacuation of our client’s retained products of conception (ERPC), performed after she suffered a secondary postpartum haemorrhage. She bled again heavily following surgery, requiring emergency repeat evacuation when a considerable amount of remaining tissue was removed.

We are investigating a potential claim for a client with multiple sclerosis and considering whether the condition should have been diagnosed much earlier and at a time when treatment would still have been successful.