Paralysis After Surgery | How To Claim For Medical Negligence

Have you suffered paralysis after surgery and want to know if you can claim medical negligence compensation? If so, this guide discusses the eligibility criteria you must satisfy to make a medical negligence claim, including the time limits you must adhere to.

We also explore the duty of care medical professionals owe you and how you could suffer paralysis due to surgical negligence. Evidence is crucial in any medical negligence case not only to show the severity of the harm caused but also how a duty of care that a medical professional owes was breached, therefore we have provided a list of supporting proof that you could collect.

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Advice On How To Claim For Paralysis After Surgery – Medical Negligence Claims Guide

Finally, this guide outlines why you should consider instructing a No Win No Fee solicitor to support your medical negligence claim, should it be eligible. To uncover the validity of your case, get in touch with our team of advisors today. If eligible, they may offer to pass you over to a solicitor from our panel.

You can get in contact with a member of the team now by:

  • Phone 020 3870 4868
  • Filling in our claim online form to begin your enquiry
  • Speaking with us directly over live chat on our website

Select A Section

  1. A Guide To Claims For Paralysis After Surgery
  2. How Could Surgical Negligence Cause Paralysis?
  3. Important Evidence In Claims For Medical Negligence
  4. How Much Could You Claim For Paralysis After Surgery?
  5. Why Choose A Solicitor From Our Panel When Claiming For Paralysis After Surgery?
  6. Further Medical Negligence Claim Guides

A Guide To Claims For Paralysis After Surgery

Before you undergo any type of surgery, the risks will be explained to you by the surgeon/consultant. In some surgeries suffering paralysis may be a risk. Therefore not every case of paralysis after surgery will result in a medical negligence claim. To make a medical negligence claim due to suffering paralysis after surgery, you must satisfy the eligibility requirements. To be eligible it is important to establish the below criteria

  • A medical professional agreed to treat you, therefore they owed you a duty of care
  • Due to not providing the correct standard of treatment and care the duty was breached.
  • You suffered harm that was otherwise avoidable because of the breach of duty.

When a doctor or nurse treats you, they owe you a duty of care to provide you with a service of the correct level. Medical negligence is when a practitioner through negligent acts or omissions does not follow the standards within their profession, and this leads to a patient suffering unnecessarily.

Surgical negligence can also occur in ‘never events’. These are situations where the incident should never have happened had the proper frameworks been followed.

Limitation Periods

As well as satisfying the above criteria, you must adhere to the time limits to start a medical negligence claim due to paralysis after surgery. The Limitation Act 1980 outlines that you generally have three years from the incident date to begin your surgical negligence claim. However, there are time limit exceptions to this general rule.

Contact us now to learn more about the time limits and your eligibility to make a medical negligence claim. Our team can confirm the validity of your case through a free consultation.

How Could Surgical Negligence Cause Paralysis?

You may be wondering how paralysis during surgery could be caused by medical negligence. Below, we outline some ways surgery could leave you paralysed.

  • A nerve could be cut during an operation gone wrong
  • An anaesthetist overdoses a patient, causing brain damage that leaves the patient disabled.
  • When operating on the back, the surgeon accidentally damages the spinal cord
  • Medication errors and incidents involving the placement of spinal anaesthetic

If you suffer paralysis, it could be temporary or permanent and affect you in many ways. You may be unable to move part or all of your face and body. However, the symptoms of paralysis could also include:

  • Weakening the affected body parts
  • Making the affected areas tingle all the time
  • Leaving you with muscle spasms and twitches

If you have questions about whether the paralysis after surgery you suffered was caused by medical negligence call a member of the team today for a free case assessment.

Important Evidence In Claims For Medical Negligence

If you have satisfied the eligibility criteria, and you want to claim medical negligence compensation, then it is vital you have evidence to show how a duty of care you were owed was breached and how this led to you suffering paralysis after surgery.

Here we look at examples of evidence that could be gathered to help with a medical negligence claim:

  • Your medical records that outline your condition and the treatments you were provided
  • Witness contact details of anyone who joined you in consultations before and post-surgery
  • Photographs of any harm you’ve suffered due to medical negligence

To see out how a medical negligence solicitor from our panel could support your case call the team now for a free consultation.

How Much Could You Claim For Paralysis After Surgery?

If your medical negligence claim following paralysis after surgery is successful, you will be awarded general damages for the avoidable harm that has been caused. You may also be awarded special damages if you have also suffered financial losses due to this harm. The compensation that you are awarded will only cover the injury caused by the negligence.

When solicitors are valuing the general damages head of the claim they can refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) alongside any medical evidence and independent medical assessments you have undergone. The JCG is a publication that lists different kinds of injuries which are accompanied by guideline compensation brackets.

Below, you will find a table of different injuries with guidance figures taken from the JCG. Since all cases differ, please remember that we cannot guarantee the compensation you could receive.

Compensation Table

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Harm Severity Compensation Notes
Paralysis Quadriplegia £324,600 to £403,990 Where the individual loses the ability to move any part of their body from the neck down.
Paraplegia £219,070 to £284,260 The individual loses the ability to move the lower part of their body, including both legs.
Shorter Durations £49,340 Appropriate in cases where the individual dies shortly after the incident for an unrelated reason to their paralysis.
Brain Moderately Severe £219,070 to £282,010 Very seriously disabled, including limb paralysis and requiring constant professional care.
Back Severe (i) £91,090 to £160,980 Spinal cord and nerve root damage, leading to severe pain and incomplete paralysis.

Claiming For Special Damages

Special damages form the other head of claim that could comprise your successful settlement. Special damages compensate you for any reasonable losses you’ve incurred previously or in the future due to medical negligence. Evidencing these losses can be useful to ensure you’re fully compensated for them.

What can special damages include:

  • Travel expenses
  • The earnings you lost out on due to being incapable of working
  • If your paralysis is permanent, this may mean that you can no longer work and you could be compensated for all future lost earnings.
  • Care costs
  • Nursing costs
  • Rehabilitation fees
  • Home help
  • Invoices that show medical costs

A solicitor from our panel could provide an evidence portfolio to assist your paralysis after surgery case if eligible. To uncover the validity of your medical negligence claim, contact our team of advisors now.

Why Choose A Solicitor From Our Panel When Claiming For Paralysis After Surgery?

Instructing a medical negligence solicitor to work on your case can be very beneficial, not only can they collect the supporting evidence, ensure your claim is filed on time, and value your settlement accurately but they can also complete all the correspondence with the third party. The solicitors on our panel can do this on a No Win No Fee basis under a Conditional Fee Agreement. This means:

  • You will not be required to pay a solicitor fee before the case begins
  • There will be no solicitor fees needed throughout the case
  • If the case is lost, you will not be required to pay the solicitor for the work they have done on the claim.
  • Only when the case is won, does the solicitor take a success fee from the compensation. Under legislation, this fee is taken as a percentage of the compensation and is legally capped.

By contacting our team today you will not only get answers to your questions concerning making a medical negligence claim, but they can assess your case free of charge. Should they find that you have an eligible medical negligence claim, they could connect you with an expert solicitor from our panel.

Talk To Our Team

You can get in touch with us today for your medical negligence claim due to paralysis after surgery by:

Further Medical Negligence Claim Guides

If you have any further questions about claiming for medical negligence due to paralysis after surgery, please do not hesitate to call the team. We have also included further useful guides from our website:

Below are some sources you could find helpful: