NEW HOPE IN BATTLE AFTER SURGERY LEAVES WOMAN IN AGONY

A RUNCORN couple’s four-year fight for surgery to correct an operation they said resulted in debilitating pain and potentially lethal spasms could have reached a major milestone as medics met to discuss their predicament.

Aveesha and Dave Collins, of The Brow, Runcorn, had been in limbo over finding a surgeon to perform the operation to deal with a loose metal frame in Mrs Collins’s neck after Warrington Hospital, which had agreed to take on the case, was suspended from carrying out spinal surgery.

The Weekly News reported on the couple’s battle last week.

Mr Collins said Salford Royal has now held a multidisciplinary meeting and is keen to see Mrs Collins as soon as possible.

The couple said Mrs Collins’s symptoms began six years ago resulting in the diagnosis of a slipped disc in her neck.

Surgery at The Walton Centre followed but rather than improve her condition, agonising, debilitating and life-changing pain followed, which persisted following a second operation.

Their efforts to persuade doctors that problems remained foundered and in the end Mrs Collins attended Warrington Hospital accident and emergency (A&E) department in desperation for someone to take her appeals for help seriously, only to find the issue was too complex for A&E as well and her general practitioner.

As well as the pain, the couple fear that the metal frame has been left loose perilously close to a major vein and is pinching a nerve in her neck, which is causing spasms that have affected her ability to swallow and could be a choking hazard.

When contacted last week The Walton Centre declined to comment.

Warrington And Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it began the transfer of patient cases to Salford Royal in November and said it could confirm Mrs Collins would be seen in the New Year.

Salford Royal said it had created extra clinics to accommodate Warrington Hospital’s transferred caseload.