£195,000 payout for man who swallowed false teeth

‘A catastrophe to be avoided’

A MAN who swallowed his dental plate has won £195,000 in damages after he became seriously ill following a procedure to remove the false teeth.

Derek Hamilton, 64, ingested the plate seven years ago as he was playing with his grandson.

The sharp edges caused a tear when a surgeon at Wishaw General Hospital, in Lanarkshire, removed the plate through his oesophagus rather than via an incision to the abdomen.

A court heard that Mr Hamilton then suffered life-threatening conditions including respiratory failure and reduced kidney function. He spent a total of 45 days in hospital.

Mr Hamilton, from Cleland, Lanarkshire, subsequently raised an action at the Court of Session, claiming that injuries he suffered were caused by negligence on the part of 50-year-old consultant surgeon Martin Downey.

He originally raised a claim for £500,000 against Lanarkshire Health Board, but damages were agreed at £195,000 plus interest.

In the action it was claimed that the injuries would have been avoided if the surgeon had performed a laparotomy rather than persisting in removing the dental plate via the oesophagus using an endoscope. The health authority had contended that Mr Downey had acted with appropriate skill and care.

Judge Lady Wise ruled in favour of Mr Hamilton after hearing evidence from a number of surgeons and consultants.

She said: ‘I have found that Mr Downey took an easily avoidable risk, namely of perforating the oesophagus, that all general surgeons know is a catastrophe to be avoided.

‘I have found that, but for the taking of that easily avoidable risk, the patient’s oesophagus would have remained intact.’

She stressed that it was an ‘isolated occasion on which Mr Downey breached his duty of care to a patient’, saying: ‘There was evidence that in his daily work in colorectal surgery he operates as a highly skilled and effective professional and it was clear that he regretted very much the poor outcome that resulted.’

The judge said in the circumstances, Mr Downey could not reasonably have been satisfied that he could remove the plate safely.

Expert witness Dr Simon Galloway told the hearing the 3-4cm denture plate was ‘at the limit of what can be ingested’.