Ex-carer lost her foot after doctors ‘ignored infection for a year’
FOR a year, Karen Webb suffered pain and then agony from an ulcer on her foot.
Then she had to have it amputated as the infection was so bad her foot felt like it was ‘on fire’.
Now the 47-year-old is suing two hospital trusts over what she claims were delays in treating her.
She has accused them of ignoring her concerns about the problem, which left her in so much agony that she was relieved to learn her foot and part of her leg would be removed.
Mrs Webb said: ‘The whole way along this awful experience I took photographic evidence of my foot and it’s clear as day things were getting progressively worse but I was ignored.
‘Towards the end of the infection, it felt like my foot was on fire and I was being stabbed with a knife.
‘The pain was shooting up my leg every second. When the doctors broke the news that I would be waking up without a foot and part of my leg, I was actually relieved.
‘It had got so bad I was happy to lose part of my limb.’
As Mrs Webb’s ulcer worsened, it
‘I feel like a freak, which is hard’
cracked her heel bone and an infection of dead tissue and skin could no longer be treated with antibiotics.
‘But still there seemed to be no real sense of urgency in treating my condition,’ she claimed.
Mrs Webb, of Seaford, East Sussex, alleged she had to wait more than a week for an MRI scan and was told that blood tests were clear despite the wound weeping, smelling and some of her skin turning black.
The former nursing home assistant said she also suffered headaches, mood swings, tiredness and lethargy.
After the operation to remove her foot and half of her calf, she told how she had suffered from depression. She also has to use a wheelchair as she finds her artificial limb difficult to wear.
‘A few weeks after losing my leg, the reality of what I had been through finally hit home,’ said Mrs Webb. ‘It wasn’t just my leg which was taken from me – I had been stripped of my independence too.’
She struggled to carry out chores she used to take for granted or walk short distances without help from her devoted husband Sean.
‘I can’t stand looking at my foot and I find the prosthetic leg too uncomfortable and difficult to wear,’ said Mrs Webb. ‘I feel like a freak which is hard when I used to take so much pride in my appearance.
‘This has affected my life for ever. Thank God I have my wonderful husband, without him I would have given up a long time ago.’
Mrs Webb has also com- plained that a picture of her infected foot was used to illustrate a medical journal on preventing and treating diabetic ulcers.
She was approached about using the picture but was ‘flabbergasted’ to see it featured in Community Wound Care the same month as her surgery, according to her lawyers at the firm Slater and Gordon.
They are seeking compensation from Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.
The civil action claims they were negligent in appointments at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, and at Conquest Hospital, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.
Mrs Webb was first seen on 24 March 2014 and had surgery on 2 March the following year.
Emma Doughty, a clinical negligence lawyer at the firm, claimed the operation could have been ‘easily avoided’ and accused the trusts of a ‘sustained and concerning lack of medical attention’.
She added: ‘Karen feels her life will never be the same again and she is devastated at her situation.’
Legal documents were submitted to the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court in November.
Both health trusts declined to comment while legal proceedings were continuing.
‘Stripped of my independence’