Our client suffered with pain, swelling and warmth around her knee after the surgery. She attended numerous clinic appointments as her symptoms persisted and did not improve. She was treated with both oral and intravenous antibiotics without any diagnosis of the nature of the infection.
In March 2007 Lisa was seen by a specialist Microbiologist. The Microbiologist advised that the knee should be washed out and further investigations should be performed to establish an exact diagnosis.
The Orthopaedic team failed to act on this advice.
Instead our client was prescribed a further course of intravenous antibiotics. Our client remained on this course of antibiotics for eleven months, without any microbiological diagnosis being made.
In January 2008 a scan suggested an infection in the prosthetic knee. Lisa underwent urgent surgery to have her original knee prosthesis removed, her knee washed out and the prosthesis replaced.
Lisa contacted Fieldfisher and with the help of public funding legal aid her claim was investigated.
Initially the defendant hospital denied liability and so proceedings were issued at Court. The parties entered into negotiations and the claim was settled before trial.