A man in his late 20s was awarded £30,000 in compensation after negligent surgery to correct a childhood squint.
Following two failed attempts to correct the squint as a child, the claimant, ‘C’, finally had successful surgery 20 years later. Due to the multiple procedures, C was left with significant scarring around his eye.
When he was six months old, C’s parents noticed an obvious squint in their son and a consultant ophthalmologist advised that he wear glasses and the use of an eye patch to improve the lazy eye.
On being reviewed three years later, C’s parents were keen to explore surgical correction. However, during a pre-operative assessment, the consent form didn’t set out any associated risks of the surgery such as overcorrection or worsening of sight.
C underwent the surgery in 1996, just after his fourth birthday, to alter the muscles in his eye in a bid to straighten it. But afterwards, the outcome and appearance of the squint was far worse than expected. His eye was now facing the opposite direction; it had gone from turning towards his nose (convergent) to facing outwards and upwards disappearing behind his eyelid (divergent).
The squint worsened and the advice was to redo the surgery, but again no risk warning was given pre-operatively. The second surgery, which took place six months later, wasn’t performed correctly as planned and resulted in C’s squint being convergent again.
C’s parents had little faith that the surgeon had the ability to correct it. They sought a second opinion from another squint surgeon and C had regular assessments up until being 10. However, he wasn’t keen to undergo surgery again.
The family moved abroad soon after. It wasn’t until C visited a French hospital some 20 years later with visual problems and concerns over the cosmetic appearance of his eye that he was told the two surgeries in England had been performed incorrectly. He had successful surgery to correct his squint in 2016.
Litigation
C sought legal advice from Medical Solicitors to discuss whether he had a medical negligence claim. In England, claims relating to children have a three-year time limit from their 18th birthday. This client approached us some years after that time limit had expired, but within three years of being told that his childhood surgery was possibly negligently performed. His legal representative, Matthew Brown, was able to negotiate an extension to the limitation period.
During the claim, Matthew worked with an ophthalmologist to prepare reports on breach of duty and causation. However, the Defendant denied liability and so court proceedings were issued.
The Defendant made an initial offer of £20,000 which was increased by negotiation to £30,000, which our client accepted.