Aideen McGarry has recently settled a claim for failures in relation to bowel surgery, undertaken at Kings College Hospital, for our client, a woman in her early 40’s. The case related to failures to provide proper information and obtain informed consent for surgery, as well as failings in surgical technique and in the aftercare provided. Our client sustained serious injuries.
As a result of suffering from ulcerative colitis our client had undergone a subtotal colectomy with ileostomy and rectal stump formation when she was 19 years old. This procedure essentially involves removing the diseased part of the bowel and creating a stoma which drains waste into a colostomy bag. Our client was told that in the future she would have to have surgery, either to make the ileostomy permanent or to create an ileoanal pouch - a pouch inside the body to replace the colon and rectum meaning that there is no need for a colostomy bag.
Our client was advised to wait until she had had children before undertaking a further procedure and in 2015 it was recommended that she have J-Pouch surgery (a type of ileoanal pouch). However, our client was not properly advised about the risks. She was extremely unwell and in terrible pain after the procedure and had to go in to hospital many times with sepsis. It turned out that her J Pouch had catastrophically failed. She had a pre-sacral collection which was the cause of the sepsis.
Our client had to have further surgery to remove the pouch and thereafter had to have a permanent ileostomy. Her case was that she was not properly informed of the risks of the J-Pouch surgery and was not given a feasible option of having a permanent stoma despite the fact that she had been managing well with a temporary one since 1999. Further, the J-Pouch surgery was not undertaken correctly and there was a failure thereafter to promptly drain the pre-sacral collection.
Had our client been properly informed of the risks, her position was that she would not have undergone J-Pouch surgery and would have opted to have an end ileostomy with a permanent stoma. However, her alternative case was that if the J-Pouch surgery had been undertaken correctly, this surgery would have been successful.
Our client endured significant pain and infection as a result of her pouch failing. She also suffered the formation of a fistula at the ileostomy site (which impacts upon leakage) and a hernia. She has had to undergo further surgery and is now at an increased risk of future complications. She additionally has a psychiatric injury and has had to make significant amendments to her diet. She suffers from back pain, dysmenorrhea and inflammatory symptoms which may be the result of internal scarring from multiple surgeries.
Our client required help in caring for her young children and was unable to work in her family business as anticipated following her J-Pouch surgery.
This claim was due to go to trial and the Defendant had denied liability. However, a settlement was achieved shortly before a pre-arranged negotiation meeting in the sum of £425,000 which represented an excellent outcome for our client.