Specialist medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell have acted for a woman who suffered because of a botched leg lengthening procedure.
Our client had a congenital dislocation of the hip which resulted in her right leg being approximately 5-6cm shorter than her left leg. She wanted to address her leg length disparity, so her GP referred her to an orthopaedic consultant who had an interest in femoral leg lengthening.
On 6 May 2005, she underwent a right femoral leg lengthening procedure. It consisted of fitting a frame and construction lengthening fixator, which she had to turn each day in order to lengthen her leg.
After the operation our client experienced severe pain in her back and knee with reduced knee movement. The hospital performed a further four procedure but she was still left with inflexibility in the right knee, suffered back and hip pain, along with a residual Trendelenburg gait. Her right leg was still shorter than her left leg.
Our client was a nurse and was forced to reduce her hours because she couldn’t cope with being on her feet all day after the injury.
However, our medical negligence experts were able to secure our client an undisclosed sum for the pain and suffering caused.
Kate Major, a London-based clinical negligence expert, represented the client. She said: "Hopefully lessons have been learnt on behalf of the Trust and other patients do not have to go through the same ordeal."
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