Irwin Mitchell has recently helped a man to claim compensation after he was injured after falling into an uncovered drain.
Our client was crossing a road to return to his car when he fell down an uncovered drain, which at the time was obscured by a parked vehicle.
As a consequence of the accident, he sustained a serious fracture to his ankle requiring surgery. Leeds City Council tried to allege that the drain had been covered by a traffic cone and that our client should take some responsibility for the accident happening. This despite the fact that there was no evidence to support these allegations.
Despite an anticipated recovery after the surgery, there were still ongoing symptoms of pain and discomfort in the ankle. Further surgery was recommended to remove the metalwork to see if this improved the symptoms. The gentleman was referred back to his treating clinician on the NHS, but due to the fact that the surgery was not urgent, he was advised that the waiting list would be approximately 6 months.
With the help of Cathryn Godfrey of the Leeds Serious Injury team, an interim payment was obtained, allowing the surgery to take place on a private basis. Following surgery our client experienced an improvement in his symptoms but was still left with some pain and discomfort which made it difficult for him to drive a manual vehicle and to do the heavier aspects of gardening and housework.
Cathryn said, "The settlement achieved for the client included funds for him to upgrade his vehicle to an automatic, to make driving easier and also to pay for assistance with the more demanding aspects of the gardening, in addition to the costs of surgery and compensation for the injury sustained.
"It had been hoped that one the metalwork had been removed from his ankle that he may make a full recovery, unfortunately, this sod not happen, but settlement of the claim has given him the funds required to help his symptoms on a day to day basis."
If you've suffered a serious broken or fractured bone injury at work, our specialist serious injury claims team could help you to claim compensation. See our Fracture Claims page or Accidents At Work Claims page for more information.
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