A mis-read x-ray has led to one man receiving a massive personal injury compensation payout due to his missed spinal injury, accident claim experts recently reported.
Liam Careless, who was only 12 years of age at the time of his admittance to Tameside Hospital 11 years ago, had been feeling paralysis symptoms in his neck, prompting his mother to take him to the accident and emergency of the hospital to seek treatment. There, hospital staff took an x-ray of the area in question, but later discharged Liam, informing him that the pain in his neck would dissipate in a few days, according to personal injury claims experts familiar with the case.
However, Liam continued to suffer severe pain in the area for the next several years. It wasn’t until 2004 that the source of his agonising pain was finally discovered, as the initial x-ray had been mis-interpreted by medical staff, with the true cause being spinal cord compression.
Had Liam had been given a surgical procedure as soon as the issue had developed, his condition could have been alleviated, yet because of the delay in his diagnosis, Liam, now a young man, will have to suffer through the pain for the remainder of his life, in addition to having to live with mobility problems as well.
Liam brought a claim against the NHS Foundation Trust for the hospital for personal injury compensation, according to a recent report in the Manchester Evening News newspaper. Now, thanks to a settlement out of court, the young man will soon be receiving a compensation award of six figures.