Mrs A consulted her GP with various issues and was referred to the Gynaecology department of her local hospital. She was offered one solution for the multiple problems she reported namely to have Tension-Free Vaginal Tape Surgery (TVT).
She was told that the TVT surgery would fix all of her problems and that the success rate for such surgery was extremely high. There were no benefits and risks explained to Mrs A, nor were any alternative procedures offered.
Of crucial importance in this case was that there was no explanation to Mrs A that one of the issues that she had complained about namely urinary incontinence could in fact be exacerbated and indeed there was a significant prospect of that risk actually materialising.
The urinary incontinence issues did worsen in Mrs A’s case and in addition the other issues which had been reported were not fixed at all – this is despite the fact that she was offered ‘a fix-all approach’.
Expert evidence confirmed that there was a failure to obtain appropriate informed consent and that other methods of treatment should have been explored with Mrs A particularly those of a conservative nature in the first instance.
Garratts were successful in obtaining £20,000 for Mrs A.
