Have a question? Call us on 0800 1979 345
This article was published on December 9th, 2015
A 66 year old woman has received a five figure, undisclosed sum in an out of court settlement after her surgeon use permanent metal stitches inside her neck following a thyroid operation, knowing that she had a rare phobia. The woman suffers from an unusual and acute phobia of foreign objects in her body which led to a severe psychological reaction on learning she had 25 metal clips inside her body.
According to the patient, she made the surgeon aware of her crippling fear of foreign objects in her body but the operation was carried out regardless, in a private hospital, and she was under the impression that the surgeon would be using dissolvable stitches because of her phobia.
After the operation, she did panic seeing tubes in her arms and did try to pull them out, but at that time was unaware that she had 25 metal clips inside her.
Later that year, she complained of breathing difficulties and went to see a specialist and it was following an X-ray showing that she saw there were clips inside her neck and had an immediate panic attack.
She said, “I can’t remember getting home from that meeting,” .
“I can only explain the feeling as similar to when you have a near miss in a car accident, that jolt of panic, followed by feeling out of control.
“I know I went to my GP’s surgery and told them there was metal inside me and they had to take it out.
“At that point, my GP began proceedings to section me under the Mental Health Act.”
She had to go through therapy to try and come to terms with her phobia.
“I genuinely tried hard with the therapy for months, but it got to the point where I was making lists of things to do the next day so that I had a purpose to be alive day by day.
“I lived in constant fear that I would wake up to find more tubes or clips inside me.”
The patient claims her warnings about her acute phobia were not taken seriously by the consultant surgeon before the operation and that another doctor had already told her that an alternative procedure without clips was possible. She claimed she told her surgeon that she did not want the surgery using clips but that clearly the surgery went ahead with the permanent stitches and therefore she was exposed to unnecessary stress, which she claimed ruined her life.
“It’s like putting an arachnophobe into a room full of spiders and telling them not to be so silly.”
The clips were eventually removed in private surgery after she claimed the foreign bodies were having a serious effect on her mental state.
Pursuing a clinical negligence claim can often be a complex process which is why it is so important to find a solicitor that specialises in this area. Too many firms add clinical negligence into their general portfolio of personal injury practitioners. At Thorneycroft Solicitors we have a dedicated team who specialise in this field alone. We work with the most experienced medical experts, ensuring their involvement from the outset of the claim to offer advice and guidance.
There to advise you through each step of the process, from the initial advice, to possible treatment if required, we pride ourselves on our professional but caring approach. We also offer a free initial interview in order to review your specific circumstances and assess the viability of your clinical negligence claim.
To speak to one of our specialist team call us now on FREEPHONE 0800 093 2030, or complete our simple enquiry form and we can call you back at a time to suit you.
This website privacy notice sets out how Thorneycroft Solicitors uses and protects any information that you give Thorneycroft Solicitors when you use this website.
Thorneycroft Solicitors is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.
Thorneycroft Solicitors may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 01/05/2018.
What we collect
We may collect the following information:
We will collect the information directly from you via completion of our enquiry form on the website.
What we do with the information we gather
We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:
We will also collect and process your personal data if you have consented to receiving marketing in respect of our services. You are able to unsubscribe or withdraw your consent at any time by emailing [email protected] or writing to ‘Marketing’ at Thorneycroft Solicitors, 9a Bridge Street Mills, Bridge Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 6QA.
Security
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
Retention
If you do not instruct us in relation to your legal matter, your personal details will be retained for a period of 12 months.
If we are instructed in relation to your legal matter, we will keep it in line with our data retention periods. Details of our retention period for your legal matter can be found within our Client Care Letter and/or Terms of Business, under the heading file retention.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.
Your Rights
Google AdWords
This website uses the Google AdWords remarketing service to advertise on third party websites (including Google) to previous visitors to our site. It could mean that we advertise to previous visitors who haven’t completed a task on our site, for example using the contact form to make an enquiry. This could be in the form of an advertisement on the Google search results page, or a site in the Google Display Network. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to the website. Of course, any data collected will be used in accordance with our own privacy policy and Google’s privacy policy.
You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Preferences page, and if you want to you can opt out of interest-based advertising entirely by cookie settings or permanently using a browser plugin.
×