£7,500 obtained for man who had shards of glass left in arm for months

Amanda Cavanagh, a medical negligence specialist at Ashtons Legal, has obtained £7,500 for a man who had shards of glass left in his arm for several months after doctors failed to identify them.

Mr J had an accident at home which resulted in glass being embedded into his arm. He visited his local accident and emergency department the same day, however the hospital failed to identify and remove four significant shards of glass. Although Mr J was complaining of pain, he was discharged.

Months later, Mr J was still experiencing significant pain and it was only when he was referred back to hospital by his GP that those shards of glass which were missed at his initial attendance were found on x-ray.

As a result, Mr J had to have a second operation to remove the rest of the glass. This caused him further pain and scarring and he subsequently had to endure a second period of recovery.

Amanda Cavanagh comments: “Mr J’s second operation was completely avoidable and left him in pain for several months. I hope the medical professionals involved in this case will ensure that they carry out the correct measures for identifying foreign objects in the body in the future so that other people do not have to suffer unnecessarily in the way that Mr J did.”