Artery Transected During Knee Surgery Case
During the course of surgery to her knee, the surgeon accidentally transected L’s popliteal artery with the saw blade. Despite significant blood loss, it was not until L was in recovery that a popliteal injury was suspected.
L was blue lighted by ambulance to another hospital with a vascular surgery department. Here, she underwent emergency surgery to perform a bypass to restore blood flow to her lower leg and foot. Unfortunately, the graft blocked and she returned to theatre a few hours later for further surgery. Blood flow was restored but she required a fasciotomy which necessitated a skin graft and left her with significant scarring to her lower leg.
As a result of the injury she sustained during routine knee surgery, she now suffers from mild/moderate ischaemia of the right lower leg with intermittent claudication, pain, limited mobility, significant post-operative scarring and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She has been unable to return to work as a nurse and requires assistance with some domestic tasks.
Our orthopaedic expert was critical of the treatment she had received. In his view, either the retractors that are used to protect the artery were not positioned correctly or, alternatively, they were correctly placed but the surgeon had allowed the saw blade to travel past the area of protection. Either way, in his opinion, this amounted to negligence.
This was disputed by the Defendant. It was their position that this was a recognised, albeit rare, complication of the surgery she underwent.
The parties relied on numerous experts each but shortly before a 10 day trial in the High Court, a substantial settlement was reached.
As a result of our specialism in this field and the strength of evidence we were able to produce in support of L’s claim, we were able to convince the Defendant to settle the claim for a significant sum, rather than fight it out in Court.
Kathryn Watson, September 2025