West Country businessman receives significant compensation for clinical negligence

Sept. 17, 2012 - PRLog -- The claim arose after Mr Wareham, a diabetic, suffered from a severe foot infection at the beginning of August 2008, which was not correctly assessed and medicated. An initial course of antibiotics and hospital appointments did not address Mr Wareham’s problem and the infection increasingly worsened, resulting in serious action needing to be taken. Unfortunately, the development of the infection led to the amputation of Mr Wareham’s right lower leg later the same month.

Approaching top south west solicitors, Pardoes, in January 2009, Mr Wareham began his three and a half year battle for compensation. Finally, in June 2012 a round table settlement was attended by all involved and an agreeable figure was decided. Pardoes was able to successfully secure a significant six figure sum for Mr Wareham’s medical negligence claim.

Mr Wareham, comments, "It's been a very long and stressful three and a half years to get justice for my mistreatment. Despite the medical facts of the case, it is frustrating it took over three years to be resolved. I can only hope that lessons will be learnt from the failures and new or revised procedures will be introduced to avoid a repeat of the mistakes and errors, which led to my unnecessary amputation.

“I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone in the legal team who, under the guidance of Justin Goodman, worked exceptionally hard to ensure justice prevailed. Without help from Legal Aid funding and the solicitor's total commitment to my case, I would never have been in a position to see the successful outcome and resolution of the claim."

Justin Goodman has represented a number of diabetics in clinical negligence cases during his career and comments on the case, “On each and every occasion Mr Wareham attended the Out-of-Hours General Practitioner and the A&E Dept of Weston General Hospital, he should have been referred for surgical opinion by an appropriately experienced surgeon who deals with diabetic foot infections. Had he been referred, he would not have undergone an amputation of his right lower leg below the knee.”

There are National Institute of Clinical Excellence Guidelines, which clearly state healthcare professionals should refer to a multi-disciplinary team specialist in diabetic foot infection cases. There are other guidelines from the same body, which provide details as to the recommended treatment in these situations. Any new area of sore or open wound in a diabetic foot should be treated as a foot-care emergency and a referral should be made on an urgent basis for a patient to be seen within 24 hours.  

Diabetics can have problems caused by infections, which fail to heal as they would in a non-diabetic foot and amputations can be avoided with careful monitoring in a primary care setting and with timely intervention and appropriate treatment.

Pardoes is a well-established South West legal firm, with 15 partners and 95 staff across its Bridgwater, Yeovil and Taunton offices. It offers a full range of legal services and has expanded many of its specialist sectors in the past two years. During that time new partners have been appointed to head up its core business divisions in the fields of private client, family, property, litigation and commercial and employment work.