Medical negligence??

Author
Discussion

fred flange

Original Poster:

465 posts

228 months

Thursday 25th February 2010
quotequote all
Sorry if this is a bit of a long one but here goes,i was knocked off my motorbike last
march resulting in a broken femer and fractured hip and pelvis,my femer was pinned(20cm long) and screwed and 4 months later given the all clear to return to work,but was still in a bit of pain and discomfort. Six weeks later the titanium pin in my femer cracked resulting in my femur refracturing and and shifting and bending all 4 screws holding it in place.
I then had to wait a month for xray etc,(all while being back on crutches)before being readmitted to hospital for all the original mtalwork to be removed and a new L shaped minature RSJ(thats the best way to describe how it looks)with the L going into the hip area and the being screwed to the femur.this time all went well and now 5 months after the second op everything feels fine tho still have some numbness in the long scar down my thigh which was recut when they removed the snapped pin.
For the second op i had a different specialist and have asked him why the first op went wrong,all he seems to say is 99 times out of a 100 it goes right and i was the unlucky one,which i dont think is a good enough reason.
Am i right to think this?Was the specialist at fault,was there a fault in the titanium rod etc i have asked all these questions and i still get the same answer from them.

Edited by fred flange on Thursday 25th February 22:03

The_Doc

5,112 posts

227 months

Friday 26th February 2010
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Sorry, but this forum is both the wrong place to pursue this, and the most unlikely place to get an answer that is 100% accurate.

You need to talk to your GP, and/or a solicitor if you wish to pursue a negligence claim.

Don't get confused by people's attempts to help you with advice unless they are either:
1) Your orthopaedic surgeon
2) Another orthopaedic surgeon acting as a 2nd opinion

I'm afraid nobody can give you an answer apart from the above, and most likely they will not agree.

Edited by The_Doc on Friday 26th February 12:34

Piglet

6,250 posts

262 months

Friday 26th February 2010
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I agree with the Doc to a great extent. I did med neg cases for 6 months when I was a trainee.

Sometimes procedures just don't work, sometimes things have adverse outcomes. That doesn't make the Doctor negligent.

To be negligent the test is (summarised) that the Doctor needs to have done something entirely wrong or something that no other competent Doctor would have done (called the Bolin test).

To know whether you have a claim you will need to instruct a medical expert who will need access to all your notes. That expert will review the treatment and care and will give an opinion as to whether the standard of care was met or not.

Only at that stage will you have any real idea about what the situation is.

However, if your treatment was caused by the road accident then if the accident wasn't your fault (as you appear to be saying) then your compensation claim against the person who caused the accident will include the fact that you have required surgery and the time for recovery etc. so you can go that route.

You need to talk to a med neg lawyer who can talk you through the cost, I'm out of date as to what is available with regard to Conditional Fee Agreements etc. When I was dealing with these in most cases the potential claimant needed to be able to fund the experts report before we could get a CFA.

MacGee

2,513 posts

237 months

Friday 26th February 2010
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science is not perfect... only mathematics is pure....so bloody well accept that failure occurs. this pisses me of for people wanting to sue others.