Mrs B suffered with a cyst on her chest and consulted her GP about the same. It became clear that the cyst was infected and that minor surgery would be required to correct it.
Mrs B agreed to have minor surgery performed by her GP as she was told that it was a very easy and painless procedure. Mrs B underwent the surgery and following the procedure, the GP stitched up the wound and advised her that she would need District Nursing input in due course. Immediately following the procedure, Mrs B noticed that the cyst was almost folded over and had produced a very unsightly lump on her breast. When the stitches had been removed, Mrs B realised that the lump was significantly worse than it was prior to the surgery. She also now had visible stitch marks around the wound.
As a consequence of her unhappiness, Mrs B consulted a different GP at her local surgery. He agreed to re-do the operation for her making clear that the wrong stitches had been used and the area did not look how it should. She therefore had to undergo a second procedure. Due to the fact that the lump had to effectively be unfolded, Mrs B required more stitches the second time around. Following the second operation, the lump had disappeared but it was obvious that she was going to have a larger scar than would have been the case had it been done correctly in the first place.
With Mrs B's case, Garratts obtained supportive medical evidence from a GP expert confirming that there had been a breach of duty of care by the first GP in performing the surgery when the area was still infected. The view of the expert was that the area should never have been stitched, given the fact that there was an infection, as it was inevitable that the contents of the wound/infection would need to escape. Stitching the wound up made this impossible hence the lump which resulted. Garratts also secured supportive medical evidence from a Plastic Surgeon who confirmed that the scar was up to three times larger than would have been the case had the procedure been done correctly in the first place. He also confirmed that the stitch marks should not have been visible.
Following the completion of the case and with help from the Garratts legal team, Mrs B was successful in her claim and was awarded £8,500.00 by the Defendant GP.
Garratts Solicitors have an expert Medical Negligence legal team. If you feel that you or a member of your family has been a victim of clinical negligence, contact our specialist team on 0161 665 3502 to discuss a potential claim further.
