In May 2007 Frederick complained of some blurring of the vision in his right eye when seen by an Optometrist at a popular high street Optician for his regular eye test.  In August 2007 he re took the test and was assured there was no deterioration.

In February 2008 Frederick attended an alternative Optician who referred him to the Opthalmology clinic  at a local hospital with raised intraocular pressure in his right eye.  He was diagnosed as suffering from glaucoma.

Frederick had suffered a significant loss of vision in his right eye to a level leaving him functionally blind in that eye.  He had also lost approximately 20 – 30% of the peripheral vision in his left eye. 

It transpired that the intraocular pressure in Frederick’s  right eye had been significantly raised above normal upper limits during the May and August examinations and  that this should have prompted a referral to hospital at this time allowing his condition to be diagnosed and treated allowing him to maintain normal visual acuity in the right eye and avoiding any significant loss of his peripheral visual field in his left eye. 

Court proceedings were started and Solicitors acting for the high street Optician quickly confirmed they would not be defending the claim.  Frederick accepted a settlement of £65,000 in damages plus payment of his legal costs.

Ashleigh Holt

Pamela was in her seventies when she fell at home and fractured her wrist. She had a cast fitted and was reviewed 6 weeks later when the cast was removed. Her wrist was bent and had healed at 25 degrees. The doctor told her he did not need to re-break it but would refer her for physiotherapy. She felt that the reason the doctor was not doing more was because of her age and that he ignored her request to do whatever was needed to allow her to keep optimum function in the wrist.

She decided to have surgery privately as she leads a very active life and needs good use of her wrist. This cost her over £4,000 and did improve wrist function. However, there is still pain and weakness in the wrist and slight numbness around the thumb.

After court proceedings had been started, solicitors for the hospital accepted that before the wrist was put in a plaster cast, Pamela should have been offered manipulation to reduce the degree of angulation. They also admitted that if her wrist had been manipulated, it would probably have avoided the surgery. It was agreed between the parties that although 50% of her remaining symptoms were due to the corrective surgery, which would not have been necessary if she had been treated properly, the remaining 50% were as a result of the original fracture. As these symptoms would have occurred even with proper treatment, she could not recover compensation for these. Pamela was offered £14,000 which included the cost of the surgery, which she accepted.

Arthur had suffered with Rheumatoid Arthritis in his hands for several years. He was admitted to hospital for a procedure in which some of the diseased joints in his right hand were to be replaced with artificial implants. Arthur was prepared for surgery. He was given a General Anaesthetic and the Surgeon set about making the necessary incisions and preparing the bones in the hand to accept the implants.

It was at this point that the Surgeon realised that not all of the necessary components for the surgery had been ordered. No available implants were to be had for a further two days. As a result, the operation had to be abandoned and Arthur had to wait over two weeks for another operation date.

The hospital agreed that this was unacceptable treatment and paid Arthur compensation of £4,250. In addition, they arranged a more robust system to ensure that the correct implants were ordered in good time and that detailed lists of requirements for each operation were available and checked one week before the operation.