Gateshead Man Compensated after Leg-Lock Medical Blunder

Medical blunder leads to compensation

A Gateshead man who became the second person in his family to have his leg locked permanently straight after a series of medical blunders has spoken of his relief after he was awarded compensation.

Eddie Morrison, 60, was left with a fused knee after a catalogue of medical mistakes between 1999 and 2002, including a number of knee operations that specialists have since said were unnecessary.

He turned to the north east’s largest clinical negligence team at law firm Irwin Mitchell to pursue a compensation settlement for clinical negligence.

The firm had previously helped his sister in law, Brenda Soulsby, whose leg had also been left fused unnecessarily after she developed a serious infection in her knee while receiving treatment at North Tyneside General Hospital in 2002.

Mr Morrison’s case was recently settled out of court, with Gateshead Health NHS foundation Trust agreeing to pay an undisclosed amount that will improve his quality of life.

The operations on Mr Morrison – all carried out by now-retired surgeon Mr Antrobus at Gateshead’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital – included:

• A left knee replacement on 8 November, 1999 which caused a mal-rotation of Mr Morrison’s knee
• An unnecessary right patellectomy on 20 February, 2001
• An unnecessary left patellectomy on 19 September, 2001
• An arthrodesis of Mr Morrison’s left knee, which left the leg in a fused position.

Mr Morrison was forced to take early retirement from his job at Scottish Newcastle Breweries in 1998, but had planned to return to work after the knee replacements. He has never been able to do so.

Specialists have since told him that had the original knee replacement – to treat arthritis in Mr Morrison’s knees – been carried out correctly, he could have been back at work within months and would not have required so much follow-on treatment.

Angela Kirtley, Mr Morrison’s solicitor at Irwin Mitchell, said: “Mr Morrison worked hard all his life and has not only been prevented from continuing to work, but has been unable to enjoy his enforced early retirement so far.

“The compensation will not make up for what has happened and the state in which his leg has been left, but it will afford him some degree of comfort and will make life easier for him.”

Mr Morrison said the settlement would make a huge difference to how he could live the rest of his life.

He said: “I’ve seen specialists since who say I should have been working again years ago – my initial plan was to get my knees replaced and then go back to work, but it all went pear shaped.

“I feel like I’ve been compensated for the last eight years now. It has been a real struggle to get by because I haven’t been working. I can’t speak highly enough of Irwin Mitchell, they have been absolutely brilliant.

“Simple things like going on holiday are a real chore – I can’t even use an aeroplane toilet as I can’t bend my leg. It’s all too easy to take your mobility for granted but this has made getting around incredibly difficult.

“I am delighted with the settlement but, in a way, disappointed not to hear any explanation from Mr Antrobus for the treatment. I will always have questions about my treatment – the decisions that were taken and the mistakes that were made – that will remain unanswered.”