Despite being in unbearable pain, with bladder incontinence, Matt’s surgery was delayed, leaving him with cauda equina syndrome symptoms.
Having experienced back problems before, Matt was not overly concerned when pain began to develop in his lower back. However, when he started to feel tingling in his left leg, he arranged an appointment with his GP.
Unfortunately, before the appointment could take place, Matt’s pain worsened to such an extent that he attended A&E. He was given pain relief and sent home with a diagnosis of sciatica.
Within a couple of hours of arriving home, however, Matt was feeling numb in his lower back and legs.
He arranged to see his GP the following morning and an MRI scan was organised for that afternoon. By this time, Matt had sadly also started to lose control of his bladder.
Following the MRI scan, Matt, who had returned home, was told to attend his local hospital that evening. A couple of hours after he had arrived, however, he was informed that he would need to be transferred to a neurological hospital instead.
Eventually arriving at the neurological hospital around midnight, Matt was told that he required emergency surgery. However, he was not reviewed for almost three hours and, in fact, the decompression surgery which he so desperately needed did not take place until late afternoon.
The delay in recognising and treating Matt’s cauda equina syndrome means that he now continues to experience many distressing and life-changing symptoms.
He still suffers with bladder and bowel problems and his mobility is impaired, affecting his ability to work.
These effects could have been minimised with earlier surgical decompression. We helped Matt make a claim against the hospitals who failed to diagnose cauda equina syndrome and delayed emergency decompression surgery. He was awarded over £45,000 compensation.
(Details which might identify our client have been changed.)