NHS ‘gave mother breast implants she didn’t ask for’
Woman’s ordeal after double mastectomy
‘A great deal of pain and trauma’
A MOTHER has sued the NHS after waking up from a double mastectomy operation to find she had been given breast implants she had not asked for.
Donna Finegan-White, 44, decided to undergo the life - changing surgery to reduce her risk of breast cancer, which claimed the life of her 50-year- old aunt and almost killed her mother.
The mother of three spoke at length with her GP and surgeons before the operation at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon in October 2014 – but claims she never agreed to replacement implants. Mrs Finegan-White decided to sue the NHS trust after being given implants bigger than the breasts she had elected to have removed, receiving £10,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
But in a further cruel twist, Mrs Finegan-White, from Swindon, was diagnosed with a rare terminal cancer of her trachea in March and has been given two years to live. She is now planning to sue the trust again, blaming the hospital for missing her cancer, which she said should have shown up on X-rays almost a decade ago.
Mrs Finegan-White, a volunteer at a cafe for the homeless, said: ‘I’m fuming, they’ve made the mistake with me not just once, but twice.’
Prior to her mastectomy, Mrs Finegan-White had asked for ‘temporary expanders’ – which stretch the skin and pectoral muscle – to be implanted immediately after the surgery. But instead she received permanent sub-pectoral breast implants, her solicitors Irwin Mitchell said.
It was a year and four months before Mrs Finegan-White was given corrective surgery to remove them. Worse, the second operation triggered a life-threatening blood clot, meaning she had to go in for a third round of surgery to deal with the complication.
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust denied acting negligently, but admitted the issue of whether Mrs Finegan-White consented to implants fell below ‘reasonable standards’.
Describing her ordeal for the first time yesterday, she said: ‘I expected to come out of the surgery risk-free of breast cancer and without permanent implants as this is what had been agreed.
‘Yet I woke up with implants, which I had never signed for in the consultations with the surgeon.
‘At this point, I felt shocked and very upset and frustrated as it was completely unexpected. We put a great deal of trust in medical staff, relying on them for expert care.
‘I feel totally let down and angry by the care I received. I suffered a great deal of pain and trauma for months because of the implants I never signed up for.
‘By speaking out I hope my story reminds hospitals of the importance of upholding patient consent.’ James Pink, a medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, said: ‘What was meant to be an operation designed to reduce the risk of Donna being diagnosed with breast cancer ended up causing her much unnecessary distress and suffering.’
He also called on the NHS trust to ‘learn lessons’ from the case when it came to patient consent.
Women who undergo mastectomies are usually given two options if they want to rebuild their breasts – implant-based reconstruction or a procedure using the patient’s own tissue, taken from areas such as the abdomen, inner thigh or back.
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it was ‘strengthening our consent processes’ as a result of the case, but added: ‘We were given consent by the patient for implants in 2014, we did not act negligently and the case was settled in 2016.
‘We have clear and effective consent processes which outline the risks that patients may face during and after any surgery.’