£7,000 settlement after devastating delay in diagnosing post-surgery complications
A WOMAN has received £7,000 in compensation after spending a week in intensive care because of sepsis and organ failure due to West Cumberland Hospital failing to act quickly when she became seriously unwell following surgery.
The woman, who had a history of abdominal surgeries, was admitted on 19 July 2017 to have infected hernia mesh removed, a follow-up procedure after developing complications from a hernia repair done in May 2016.
After the operation, she began showing signs of severe abdominal pain, swelling and possible bowel perforation. Despite this, there were significant delays in getting her seen by a surgical doctor.
Medical staff attempted to contact a consultant at 8.30pm but no proper action was taken. She was reviewed again at 10.15pm and 2.15am on 20 July, but still no urgent scan or transfer to another hospital was arranged.
It wasn’t until 6.25am on 20 July – nearly 14 hours after her symptoms worsened – that a CT scan confirmed a bowel perforation. She was transferred to Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and underwent emergency surgery at 1.30pm that afternoon.
The procedure revealed a small bowel rupture, which had caused severe abdominal infection. She was left with a stoma and required extensive treatment, including a week in intensive care due to sepsis and organ failure.
She continued to suffer complications including a high-output ileostomy and abdominal wall fistula, needing further surgery on 6 August 2017 and specialist care until she was discharged from hospital on 19 December 2017.
Having been tasked with investigating the case, we instructed a surgical expert who confirmed there were multiple failures to act on the woman’s deteriorating condition. The report concluded that if a consultant had properly responded to the call on 19 July, earlier surgery could have taken place and the woman would have avoided about a week of intensive care and unnecessary pain.
Although the expert agreed that the woman would still have needed surgery and faced ongoing recovery challenges, the avoidable delay made her condition worse.
Upon submitting a Letter of Claim to the NHS Trust on 27 January 2020, the Trust finally admitted both negligence and causation on 4 June 2020 and, after some negotiations, a compensation settlement of £7,000 was accepted.
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