Anna Beale establishes that failures by a pain management consultant caused paraplegia in High Court Trial
Written by Cloisters
In Chapman v Mid & South Essex NHS Foundation Trust [2023] EWHC 1290 (KB), an unusual case considering the standard of care applicable to a treating pain management specialist, the High Court has found that failures in 2009/10 resulted in the claimant’s paraplegia some seven years later.
Mrs Justice Hill accepted the claimant’s primary case that a pain management consultant, who saw the claimant on two occasions in 2009 and 2010, was negligent in failing to conduct a full neurological examination and order an MRI scan in the face of reported symptoms that could indicate a new neurological problem. It was agreed between the neurosurgical experts that, had an MRI scan been carried out in 2009 or 2010, it would have shown a large thoracic disc prolapse. The court found in the claimant’s favour on the disputed causation questions of whether the prolapse was symptomatic in 2010; whether surgery would have been offered and if so, whether the claimant would have accepted it. Mrs Justice Hill concluded that, with non-negligent treatment, the claimant would have undergone surgery several years before the onset of paraplegia and would have been left neurologically normal.
Anna Beale acted for the successful claimant, instructed by Nick Knowles of Stewarts. She was assisted by her then pupil, Imogen Brown.