Plumber’s £½m payout... af ter doctors didn’t scan sore arm
A PLUMBER has been awarded more than £540,000 in damages after doctors failed to treat his football injury properly.
Darren Conquer sued NHS Lothian for negligent diagnosis and treatment of an injury he sustained as a goalkeeper in 2003.
Mr Conquer, from Tranent, East Lothian, said as a result of his failed treatment, he was in constant pain and was unable to continue to work as a plumber.
He had suffered the serious injury while playing in goal on July 30, 2003, when he tried to save a shot.
In the action he said the ball struck his right arm and biceps and he landed with the limb straight out. He felt pain and later attended Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and subsequently underwent operaShe tions in 2004 and 2009 on his right biceps tendon.
The health board admitted it was liable to make reparation to Mr Conquer, 47, as a result of a failure to perform an ultrasound scan on his arm by September 3, 2003.
It conceded that if such a scan had been performed, it would likely have revealed his biceps tendon rupture and surgical repair of the injury would have taken place within days.
Following the admission of liability, a hearing on the level of damages to be awarded took place before Lady Carmichael at the Court of Session yesterday.
The judge ruled he was entitled to a total of £542,397, which includes sums for future financial loss and pain.
The amount includes £180,000 already received as payments of interim damages.
Lady Carmichael said: ‘The pursuer suffered an unrelated but identical injury to his left arm, which was promptly diagnosed and treated.
‘His own evidence was that he made an excellent recovery from that injury and had fully recovered within six months.
‘In this case, therefore, there is unusually the opportunity to compare outcomes in relation to the same injury, in the same individual, one treated promptly and the other not.’
She said that had the necessary surgery taken place within a reasonable timescale, ‘the result would have been a full or near full recovery’.
She added Mr Conquer would have then been able to return to work within six months.
‘Prolonged pain’
noted Mr Conquer had suffered ‘clinically significant anxiety and depression’ due to him not regaining function of his arm, ‘prolonged pain’ and was unable to ‘pursue his career in the way that he otherwise would have done’.
Lady Carmichael also said: ‘The pursuer is unfit for the work for which he was trained, and for other forms of employment, such as kitchen and bathroom design, which he could otherwise have hoped to obtain.’
Mr Conquer said that he was keen to be a plumber from an early age.
He had worked in businesses in the Edinburgh area and he previously played football, golf and snooker.
In an earlier judgment in the legal action, before the admission of liability, Lord Boyd said in 2014: ‘The pursuer’s case is relatively straightforward.
‘If an ultrasound had been carried out then it would have revealed the tear in the distal biceps tendon.
‘Had that been diagnosed then there would have been a good chance of full restoration of function.’
NHS Lothian was contacted for comment.