Our senior litigator, Sonia Parkes, recently settled a hip surgery medical negligence claim relating to a patient with terminal cancer whose hips dislocated after arthroplasty (hip replacement surgery).
Sadly, the victim of negligence, a woman in her 40s, died from cancer at the end of 2021 three months after the incident. Her husband made the claim on behalf of her estate and was awarded £25,000 for his late wife’s injuries.
The deceased, ‘D’, tripped over a stool at home in August 2021 and couldn’t move from the floor. She was taken to hospital by ambulance where MRI scans were done on her pelvis, hips and right femur.
The results showed fractures in both hip joints, however the left side was non-displaced (still correctly aligned). There were also signs of necrosis and fluid build-up within the bone marrow. The woman had undergone chemotherapy and radiotherapy after being diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2019 which then spread to her brain.
At the hospital, D was seen by an orthogeriatrician who advised what the best treatment options were for her fractured hips.
The first option was to have a total hip replacement on the right side, but there was a risk of fracture displacement in the left side. The second option was to first have the left hip pinned and plated, followed by a right-side hip replacement the following day.
D opted to have the total hip replacement that same day and was given a hybrid implant, with a cementless cup and cemented femur stem. She had the left side done a few days later which, from illegible medical notes, was presumed to have been both a cemented cup and stem.
Five days after being discharged, D went to the emergency department at another hospital with sudden excruciating pain after bending down to pick something up. An x-ray of the right hip showed it had dislocated, but there was no fracture or loosening, and the left side was fine.
The right hip was manipulated under general anaesthetic to try and close the dislocation, but bone fragment was found around the implant. Two days later, it was found that D’s left hip had dislocated too and the cup was rather vertical.
She had revision surgery on her left hip three days later which also required bone grafting. Three months later, D died from the non-related terminal cancer.
Litigation
D’s husband approached Medical Solicitors to make a medical negligence claim on behalf of his late wife’s estate. The defendant trust admitted both breach of duty and causation in respect of both hip in that the total hip replacement surgeries had been carried out below a reasonable standard The family’s legal representative, Sonia Parkes, secured £25,000 in compensation in an out-of-court settlement in June 2023.
