Our client, a 50 year old woman from Deal, Kent, was caused an injury to her bladder during a laparoscopic hysterectomy at the QEQM Hospital in Margate.
Although an injury to the bladder during such surgery is not of itself negligent, the surgeon failed to identify that she had caused he injury during the operation.
Had she noticed that she had caused an injury to the bladder it would have been very simple to repair and our client would have been no worse off.
However, because she failed to notice the injury, our client suffered pain post-operatively and had to undergo a further operation 3 days later in order to repair the damaged bladder.
Our expert’s evidence was that our client’s recovery time following the operation had been slower than it otherwise would have been. She concluded, however, that she had not been caused any long term complications as a result of the delay in repairing the bladder injury.
The Defendant did not contest the claim, and the matter was settled for £7,500.
Alex Tengroth, who had conduct of the claim, commented:
“The simple error by the surgeon in failing to carefully check the bladder prior to finishing the surgery resulted in my client having to have another operation under general anaesthetic. Thankfully, there were no longer term symptoms arising from the delay in repairing the injury.”