Hodge Jones & Allen

Our client was only 22 when he had an operation at the Whittington Hospital to insert a screw into his right shoulder to stop it dislocating. Unfortunately, it was not detected that the screw was positioned incorrectly and that it had penetrated the joint.

The operational error was only discovered by chance many years later, by which time our client was suffering from premature osteoarthritis.

The hospital initially denied liability, stating “We believe this is a claim with very little prospect of success and we are preparing to defend it robustly if required”.

However, with our help, the hospital eventually admitted that the screw had been incorrectly sited and offered £25,000 in settlement. After further negotiations, the claim was eventually settled for £50,000 (made up of £25,000 general damages and £25,000 in special damages and future loss).

Points of Interest
Although the guidelines for such claims indicated that shoulder injuries tend to attract modest awards of under £10,000 general damages, we argued along the lines of an analogy with the problems reported in cases of nerve damage to the shoulder/arm. Although the above case was settled on a global basis, we estimate general damages as being £25,000.