£7,000 Settlement
Our client Meena, aged 6, had fractured her wrist whilst trampolining. Consequently, she was admitted to the hospital to have a gentle manipulation under anaesthesia to align the fracture, hopefully reverting the wrist damage. They placed her damaged wrist in a plaster cast following her surgery.
Further wrist damage
After living with the cast for a month, Meena attended hospital with her parents for what they expected would simply be the removal of the cast. This is usually a positive experience, allowing children to move forwards with recovery. Casts are removed using a saw device, whereby the blade stops moving on contact with skin to prevent injury.
However, this requires that the cast is of a minimum thickness. Unfortunately for Meena, when they’d fitted her cast, they had applied it very thinly. This caused the saw to cut too deeply and into the skin underneath. Sadly, this left Meena with a 4-inch scar on her forearm.
Mental trauma following wrist damage
Physically, Meena managed to heal well. However, she suffered mentally from the traumatic experience for some time after. She started to suffer from nightmares and found it difficult to sleep alone, meaning she needed additional support. She went to see numerous professionals, such as a plastic surgeon, a child psychiatrist, as well as receiving counselling.
How we helped
Meena’s parents came to us to claim compensation so that Meena could get the help she so desperately required. Our team of expert solicitors worked with the family and helped them to feel listened to and understood.
We saw the negligence in applying the cast so thinly and that Meena consequently suffered psychological distress. In addition, she also suffered pain from the wrist damage and residual scarring. The defendant conceded and we achieved a settlement for Meena.
We were able to include the cost of counselling within the compensation payment. She was awarded £7,000. This included a payment of £300 that the judge awarded her to buy two professional badminton rackets as a treat.
Meena made a full recovery from the incident and has since played competitive badminton for her county. We felt pleased to be able to help her through this traumatic time and wish her every success in her future and her badminton career.
How we could help you
Often, mental injuries can be just as life-altering as physical ones.
If you have suffered mentally following a traumatic injury caused by negligence, we could help you.
Contact us to make an enquiry, and our team will do what they can to help you gain compensation on a no win, no fee basis.
