After being struck blind after one leading eye specialist neglected to notice a tumour, one fourteen year old schoolgirl has recently sought and won a medical negligence compensation claim valued in the millions of pounds.
According to an accident claims specialists writing for the Daily Record newspaper, after she had been initially referred to Ewan Kemp, a consultant eye specialist, in order to correct a squint, the girl (whose name has not been released to the media due to privacy concerns) began to experience deterioration to her eye sight following surgery to correct the condition.
The fourteen year old girl had then been told to begin taking a course of eye drops, despite not being seen again by the consultant. However the child’s eye sight continued to deteriorate, which led her to a referral to a different eye consultant.
This new consultant soon discovered that the girl’s vision problems were actually being caused by a tumour in her pituitary gland that was causing interference with her optic nerve. The tumour was successfully removed after the girl underwent emergency surgical procedures at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children
While the procedure was a success, the operation had the unfortunate side effect of causing complete vision loss for the teenager. As a result, the girl’s mother launched a personal injury compensation claim against the original consultant with the claim that he had been negligent in failing to spot the tumour originally.
The original amount of damages being sought for the girl was £10 million. However before the claim ever reached the court room, a settlement was reached for a substantial, yet undisclosed amount.
Personal injury claim specialists believe that the amount of damages in the out of court settlement are at least seven figures.