Is this medical negligence

[Mamabeef]

I will start from the start here.
I'm in the UK.

On the 5th I had laparoscopic sterilization. Immediately after surgery I was in alot of pain. I have given pain killers and starting vomiting, then had a panic attack with sweating and racing heart. I vomited twice more. I was then sent home 2 hours later and hadn't urinated or eaten. No aftercare was given about wounds, compression socks, bathing etc. Was told to only phone if still vomiting.

Was ok for the next 2 days then starting being sick and couldnt eat again. Phoned the clinic and they told me to contact GP. This was a Friday night so GP now closed.

Phoned GP, suspected UTI and given antibiotics. Still no better through the week, alot of stomach pain, sweating profusely, couldnt eat.

Phoned GP again and had bloods and swabs taken. Next day my results come back as an inflamed lung and very high infection in my blood.

I'm quickly admitted to hospital where they perform CT and find out my bowel has been cut surgery the sterilization surgery and is now leaking into the rest of my body.

Do I have grounds to take this further? Due to the missed cut on my bowel and also poor aftercare?

I am currently a week in hospital and will be having a minimum stay of 4 weeks with a long recovery after.

Tia

Absolutely.

Yes.

Yes, get better first but later check if your home insurance policy has legal cover and if so whether it covers you for such a claim. Sorry you are in this situation, and i hope your recovery is straightforward.

Thanks, it's not going to be which makes the whole thing worse from such a simple procedure. Taling 6-12 months down the line getting surgery etc as it may not fully heal

I’m sorry for your complications and pain, Was it explained as a potential risk of the surgery? It seems you have been let down by both the hospital team and gp so worth a complaint on patient safety grounds via PALS/practice manager but that is not the same as claiming compensation for negligence , for which the threshold is high and you need to demonstrate than majority of hcp would have acted differently with same information.

That the injury happened is unlikely to have been negligent (the risk of injury to other structures would normally have been explained in the consent process - it’s rare but not non-existent). Exactly what the injury is/where it is makes a difference to how obvious it will have been intraoperatively and how long it might have taken to declare itself post-op. Whether the care you received afterwards reflects poor practice depends on the details - would you have expected another clinician to have come to same/different conclusions based on the available information at that point. It’s probably worth asking the surgeons whether, in retrospect, they think anything should have been done differently.

You'd need to prove that not only was your doctor negligent, but also that no other doctor, could reasonably have made the same mistake.

This is a very high bar to get over, and doctors tend to close ranks in situations like this, on the grounds of 'there but for the Grace of god go i"

Assuming you were informed of the risk of damage to surrounding organs, I don't think you'll get far with this one.

I hope you recover soon though, sounds miserable.