Mother’s payout over jaw injury
Woman’s jaw dislocated in procedure
A mother has been awarded a six-figure pay-out from a health trust after she suffered a dislocated jaw during a routine hospital procedure which was being carried out following a miscarriage.
Amanda Walker has spoken out after getting an apology from the Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.
A MOTHER has been awarded a six-figure pay-out from a Yorkshire health trust after she suffered a dislocated jaw during a routine hospital procedure which was being carried out following a miscarriage.
Amanda Walker has spoken out after getting an apology from the Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust – five years after the operation left her with the injury.
The consequences of the dislocated jaw she received, caused by a mask being forcefully put on her face prior to the operation, contributed to the breakdown of her marriage and her being unable to return to her job in PR and advertising, an industry she had worked in for 20 years.
She has endured four corrective operations and has had to have a titanium-plated prosthetic jaw inserted.
Now that the case has been resolved, Ms Walker of Knaresborough, told The Yorkshire Post that she can finally look to the future with her 11 year-old son, Louie, and her plans to open a tanning business in her home town.
She said: “I am smiling again and it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. When my solicitor told me I had won, I think I was in shock. It has been in my life for five years and all of a sudden it is over, and you think ‘what do I do now?’”
Her ordeal began in December 2010 when Ms Walker, who was almost 12 weeks pregnant, went for a scan. She was told that she was expecting twins, but only minutes later she was informed that the heartbeats of both babies had stopped.
Just a few days before Christmas she was booked in for a routine procedure at Harrogate District Hospital to remove the foetuses. When she woke from the operation, she was in pain and had discomfort from her jaw on the right-hand side of her face and struggled to open her mouth.
She said: “The news I was expecting twins was a real shock and happiness. But my gynaecologist became very quiet and within minutes said both heartbeats had stopped. I went from elation to sadness. It was not the first miscarriage I’d had, so it was a very traumatic time. I was in pain emotionally and physically and I was overwhelmed with everything, but when I woke up I knew something was wrong.”
The following month, she saw her dentist who ordered X-rays which revealed the extent of the injury. The trust, until apologising in April, maintained the pain was caused by a “clicky jaw” condition that Ms Walker had experienced more than 10 years ago.
But legal experts hired by Ms Walker at the Irwin Mitchell law firm managed to secure an admission of liability from the trust.
Ms Walker said: “The trust put a lot of obstacles in my way and made it quite awkward, but I thought I am going to persevere - I had come too far to give up.”
Dr David Scullion, medical director at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The trust is pleased an agreement has been reached. “We have apologised to Ms Walker for the impact this injury has had on her, and I would like to reiterate that apology now. We conducted an investigation into Ms Walker’s care with us in 2010 and want to give assurance that we have learned all we can from this incident.”
The Trust put obstacles in my way but I’d come too far to give up Amanda Walker