Spinal Surgery Claims

What is a Spinal Surgery Claim?

When undergoing spinal surgery, you should feel confident and reassured in the safe hands of your medical team. Unfortunately though, mistakes do happen. This can mean that you are left in a more difficult physical state following surgery. When spinal surgery goes wrong, our experienced legal team can help you navigate the challenging waters of your recovery. At Patient Claim Line, we are specialists in spinal surgery claims with over 30 years of experience. We understand the complex nature of these difficult legal cases and will guide you through the process towards the financial compensation you deserve.

Types of Spinal Surgery Claims

There are many types of spinal injury claims we come across, and they occur for a number of reasons. The information below explains the different types of cases.

Spinal Injuries following a misdiagnosis

• Diagnostic Failure: This includes failure to diagnose and treat a fracture in the neck or back, and can often be due to the injury not being picked up on an x-ray. This means the fracture is left untreated and injury gets worse.
• Lack of monitoring: If, following surgery, your condition is not adequately monitored it could lead to deterioration and a worse outcome. Especially if there were complications during the surgery.

Spinal Surgery

• Substandard Techniques: when your surgery was not performed adequately it can lead to symptoms being worse than before surgery
• Anaesthetic: if an anaesthetic was not administered properly or blood pressure was not monitored throughout the procedure
• Unnecessary surgery: undergoing a procedure you did not need. This often happens when back pain is misdiagnosed
• Surgery delays: delays in important surgery that have led to your condition advancing

Severe Spinal Injuries

• Cauda Equina: a rare condition where nerves in the spine become compressed very suddenly
• Road Traffic Accidents: spinal injury can occur following serious road traffic accidents. If there is a delay in treating these injuries, outcomes can be much more severe.

Sepsis related injuries

Complications due to sepsis can cause a spinal injury in a number of ways:

• Failing to diagnose an infection: Spinal surgery is often completed without issue even when there has been a delay in diagnosis. However, after surgery, infections can develop. If these infections are not diagnosed quickly, the infection can then cover the spinal cord and, in rare cases, cause paralysis
• Failure to admit to hospital: Again, failing to admit a patient to hospital and administer the correct antibiotics can lead to worsening of the infection or later infections developing after surgery.
• Failure to refer to surgical team: when prompt treatment is needed but there has been a delay in referring to the surgical team, complications can arise from not having surgery early enough.

Spinal Surgery Negligence

Patients can unfortunately come up against spinal surgery negligence at various stages of the journey. This may be during pre-operative checks, during the surgery itself, or whilst under the aftercare team. Here we outline some of the most common incidents of negligence that spinal surgery patients may face. 

During surgery

Several things could lead to spinal surgery negligence during the procedure itself such as:

• The surgeon could make a mistake or use the wrong technique
• The wrong equipment or knee replacement product may have been used
• A specialist may not have been present: In complex cases, it can be necessary to have another expert present. If this does not happen the care of the patient could be compromised. 

Post Operative Treatment

Following your operation you should receive adequate care to help with your rehabilitation. Examples of inadequate care include:

• Being prescribed the wrong medication or the incorrect dose
• A lack of follow up appointments or reviews
• Negligence in the nursing aftercare such as failing to move you resulting in bed sores.

How Do I Know If I Can Make a Claim?

If you have suffered any of the following medical complications following spinal surgery, you could be entitled to make a claim for compensation.

• Paralysis (complete or incomplete paralysis)
• Neurological dysfunction, or a worsening of mobility
• Requiring a walking aid and/or wheelchair
• Incontinence
• Sexual dysfunction
• Foot Drop
• Worsening of pain
• Chronic nerve damage

It is important to note that this list is not exhaustive. Complications of spinal surgery often means that patients are left in a worse physical state than before the surgery, which can be incredibly difficult to come to terms with. Our expert legal team can help you find out if you have a claim and get you the support and rehabilitation you need.

What Can I Expect? 

The final amount of compensation you receive will be decided according to the severity of your injury and the impact it has had on your life. Typically, spinal surgery compensation is awarded for:

• The costs associated with any loss of mobility, such as changes to your home, walking aids or a new car
• Loss of earnings while you recover, or future earnings if you can no longer work
• Physical and emotional therapy
• Medical bills
• Ongoing care costs including loved ones who have had to stop work to look after you

We can also help you to find additional support from charities and support groups like Aspire and Back Up Trust.

Why Choose Patient Claim Line

At Patient Claim Line we are experts in the field of medical negligence. We can tell you if you have a case and will then investigate fully to get you the compensation you deserve. We have over 100 medical negligence solicitors based throughout the UK and so offer a local service wherever you are. We are rated excellent on TrustPilot and are owned by the UK’s leading law firm. We have helped thousands of people just like you claim the compensation they deserve.

No Win No Fee

If you are able to make a claim for spinal surgery compensation, it will go ahead on a No Win No Fee agreement. Just like our client who during spinal surgery, doctors failed to confirm her MRSA status before operating, our client was MRSA positive and contracted an infection as a result at the site of surgery. Whatever the circumstances of your spinal surgery negligence, we won’t need to pay a penny up front while we investigate and pursue your claim.