Our medical negligence lawyers have helped a 20-year-old student claim a six-figure settlement after delays in treating an ovarian cyst left her unable to conceive.
In January 2016, Sarah began feeling pain in her abdomen. Her mum called an ambulance which took her to the accident and emergency department at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton, where she was admitted for treatment.
Sarah had a history of ovarian cysts and had already undergone surgery to remove her right ovary and fallopian tube in 2010. Hospital staff suspected that another cyst was causing her current symptoms and she was transferred to the gynaecological ward.
However, once there, staff did not carry out an assessment of her pelvis and she was told she would have to wait for an ultrasound scan. She was aware of the risks that ovarian cysts posed to her fertility and she and her family asked for surgery to be performed immediately.
When doctors eventually performed an ultrasound scan, they found a 9cm cyst on her ovary but decided they would need to do an MRI scan before operating. This didn’t happen for another three days, by which time the cyst had grown to 11cm.
Although Sarah pleaded to be treated, doctors at the hospital waited a total of 5 days from her admission before surgically removing her left ovary and fallopian tube. The removal of her ovary means she almost certainly cannot conceive a child, as well as causing her to suffer from the effects of an early menopause.
Following the incident, Sarah asked our medical negligence lawyers to investigate the care she received from Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs New Cross Hospital.
After we presented evidence of negligence, the trust accepted that a senior review should have been carried out earlier. They also accepted that emergency surgery to save her ovary surgery could have been performed sooner. They have now agreed to pay the Sarah £165,000 in compensation.
Sarah was represented by Rosalie Reading, an expert medical negligence solicitor at Irwin Mitchell. She said:
“Given her medical history of ovarian cysts, when our client started to experience severe abdominal pain she felt sure she was suffering from the same condition. Yet, despite repeated pleas from Sarah and her family, there was an unreasonable delay in diagnosing her condition and performing surgery.
“She has been left distraught that the hospital did not take her opinion on board. As a result Sarah has been left almost certainly infertile due to lack of ovarian function and has been left with the effects of early menopause.
“It’s vital that measures are put in place to prevent a repeat of this incident so no other women have to go through the pain and suffering that she has experienced.”
Sarah had to put her degree course on hold while she attempted to come to terms with the effects of the surgery.
She said: “The last two years have been extremely difficult for me and my family as a result of failures by New Cross Hospital.
“The hardest thing to come to terms with is that I won’t be able to conceive children naturally. I had always planned to have children but now my plans have changed in so many ways.
“As well as the physical pain and scars I’ve been left with, my experiences have had a huge impact on me mentally.
“I’m relieved the Trust has admitted liability for what I’ve been through and I hope that I can start to draw a line under my ordeal and focus on my studies.”
If you or a loved one have suffered as a result of mistakes by medical professionals and would like to make a claim for medical misdiagnosis, get in touch with us on 0370 1500 100 to arrange your free initial consultation or contact us online and we’ll call you back.
Back to Client Stories
