Disabled by a kick in the back from pupil aged five during class
A TEACHING assistant was left disabled for life after being kicked in the back by a fiveyear-old pupil during class.
Mother-of-six Kerry Shaw, 40, was crouching down in her primary school classroom when she was struck from behind – causing a freak back injury that means she is now wheelchair-bound.
She sued the out-of-hours GP who saw her two days later and failed to refer her for tests, and is now set for substantial compensation after a judge ruled in her favour at the High Court in London.
The court heard that Mrs Shaw ‘felt like Bambi’ after the incident in May 2013 because she was weak and couldn’t co-ordinate her legs.
Judge Mrs Justice Yip found that out-of-hours GP Dr Andrew Stead was negligent in missing the ‘red flag’ symptoms of her condition. She said: ‘His standard of care fell below that to be properly expected of a reasonable GP.’
Mrs Shaw was working at Humberston Church of England Primary School, in northeast Lincolnshire, when the incident happened.
Her barrister, Grahame Aldous QC, said: ‘She was squatting down on the floor to pick something up when she was kicked in the back by a five-year-old pupil.
‘As a result of the blow, she was in considerable pain for the rest of the day.’ The next day she was ‘unable to cope and undertake her duties’, he added.
Mrs Shaw was initially given painkillers by a doctor but went to see Dr Stead at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby the following day when her condition deteriorated. But she was not referred for further investigation and it was not until two days later that a third GP realised the gravity of her situation.
The teaching assistant had suffered a prolapsed disc in her spine, which compressed and damaged the nerves at the bottom of her back.
Following an MRI scan she was sent to Hull Royal Infirmary for emergency surgery. However, she had already suffered perma- nent nerve damage. Mrs Shaw claimed Dr Stead failed to spot the telltale signs of her condition, known as cauda equina syndrome.
She told the court that when husband Paul took her to see Dr Stead she had to be wheeled into the room. ‘I felt like Bambi when I was trying to walk, like I couldn’t properly coordinate my legs,’ she said.
‘If he had asked me, I would have said I had shooting pains in both legs and pins-and-needles.’
Denying negligence, Dr Stead said he did not remember seeing Mrs Shaw, but insisted he would have referred her for scans if it was necessary. The warning signs of her condition must not have been there, he said.
But the judge ruled in Mrs Shaw’s favour because an ‘immediate referral to hospital was required’.
Another hearing will decide how much of her disability could have been avoided if she was treated promptly. Dr Stead’s lawyers dispute whether he is liable to pay her compensation.
‘I felt like Bambi’