Nerve Damage After Surgery Lawsuit

Surgeries are most times the last resort to treating any health condition. They are to be carried out by expert professionals with utmost care as any mistake could prove fatal. While the majority of people who undergo surgeries in the NHS have recorded success, there have unfortunately been cases of surgical negligence putting the life of the patient in jeopardy.
This guide focuses on the negligence of surgeons resulting in nerve damage, symptoms and how to file nerve damage after surgery lawsuit if you or your loved one has suffered the consequences of a negligence-caused nerve damage after a surgery.

What is Nerve Damage?

Nerve damage or nerve cut during surgery refers to a situation where a surgeon fails to notice the presence of a nerve and hits the nerve during surgery. It may be a case of bruised nerve causing phrenic nerve pain after laparoscopic surgery, nerve damage in hand, facial nerve damage or damage to any nerve in the body.

Nerves carry messages between the brain and the rest of the body and control sensation. Nerve damage can occur as a result of cut, excessive pressure or stretching. Depending on the severity of the nerve damage, the affected individual can have debilitating health conditions as a result of the injury. Nerve damage can lead to impaired mobility, loss of sensation, extreme pain, and in the very serious cases, paralysis.

Therefore, any individual who has suffered nerve damage or noticed nerve damage after surgery, may be able to file nerve damage after surgery lawsuit for compensation.

Nerve Damage Compensation Claims

Every surgical procedure comes with its own risks and therefore surgeons should ensure they perform surgeries with caution so as not to cause the patient to suffer injuries that could well be avoided.

A negligent surgery can cause a lot of problems for the patient including nerve damage post-surgery complications. Therefore, you or your loved one who has suffered from nerve damage during surgery can make nerve damage compensation claims.

The aim of awarding you compensation after successfully proving your claim is to enable you to get back on your feet and have the best possible quality of life as the current condition permits. The compensation amount you get will also help you access medical help, go for rehabilitation and therapies which are vital for your surgery. 

Furthermore, it will also ensure that the hospital or surgeon in question takes appropriate measures subsequently to see that another person doesn’t go through the same complications and problems.

At MND, we have expert lawyers who are specialists in nerve damage compensation claims and who will ensure that you get the best possible legal representation and successfully get a deserving compensation figure just as we have done for many clients over the years.

During our free consultation session, we will listen to your story, professionally analyze your claims to see if indeed you have a valid claim, provide you with the needed legal advice and proceed to undertake your claims under our Conditional Fee Agreement policy.

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What Can Lead to Nerve Damage?

There are several reasons why nerve damage after surgery may occur. These include accidents, nerve damage in toe from injury, mistakes from administering injection, medical negligence during surgery among others. These we have highlighted below;

• Errors during surgery
• Traumatic injuries from road accidents or accidents at workplace
• Errors while administering medications including injections
• Avoidable compartment syndrome
• Exposure to hazardous substances such as arsenic, lead or mercury at work
• Misdiagnosis, late diagnosis, or failure to diagnose and treat a patient’s health conditions that could predispose the person to nerve damage.
  Such health conditions include;
  • Coeliac disease
  • Diabetes
  • Lupus
  • Cancer
  • Guillain-Barre syndrome
  • Inflammatory bowel disease
  • Chronic liver or kidney disease
  • Underactive thyroid gland

Medical professionals owe their patients a “Duty of care”. They should ensure that they receive quality medical attention as any negligent action could be disastrous for the patient, family and other dependents.

Nerve Damage After Surgery Symptoms 

Most times, patients only begin to notice the effects of sensory nerve damage after their surgery. There are several ways nerve damage can occur in different surgery types. The patient may experience phrenic nerve pain after laparoscopic surgery, femoral nerve damage after tummy tuck, vagus nerve damage or epidural nerve damage.

Negligent surgical procedure could also lead to trapped nerve in knee, trapped nerve in hip, arm or elbow, ankle surgery nerve damage.

While some nerve damage could be temporal and can heal over a period of time depending on the severity, some are permanent leading to life-altering health conditions for the patient. Symptoms that could indicate nerve damage after surgery include;

• Numbness or tingling in the extremities.
• Burning sensations 
• Loss of feeling or sensation
• Sharp pains in the affected area
• Sexual Dysfunction
• Unable to have a firm grasp on items
• Twitching
• Muscle atrophy
• Bowel or bladder Incontinence
• Partial paralysis or complete paralysis following a surgery.
• Cold feeling in the legs or arms.
• Heaviness of the upper and lower limbs
• Difficulty in lifting up that part of the body

How is Nerve Damage Caused by Medical Negligence?

Nerve damage as a result of medical negligence can occur in several ways. These include but not limited to the following;

• Errors while administering anaesthesia
• Nerve hit by needle or nerve injury during blood draw
• Injury to the inguinal and genitofemoral nerves can occur during hernia surgery
• Excessive pressure or stretching to the nerves during surgery
• Incorrect use of surgical retractors, tourniquets, scalpel or other surgical tools
• Misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis of some degenerative health conditions related to the nervous system
• Failing to position the patient appropriately during surgery

If you think you or your loved one is suffering from nerve damage caused by medical negligence, then you are well within your rights to take legal action by filing a nerve damage after surgery lawsuit. This is why we are here for you to assist you in your quest to get justice.

Even if you are not sure, we will still be glad to have a meeting with you and discuss your claims, evaluate them and see if you have a claim. Our consultation sessions do not cost you a dime, therefore, we encourage you to reach out to us at your earliest convenience. 

Nerve Damage Compensation Claims We Undertake 

Some of the nerve damage compensation related claims we undertake and have undertaken for clients include;

• Dental Paresthesia Lawsuit
• Femoral Nerve Damage Lawsuit
• Nerve Damage After Surgery Lawsuit
• Dental Nerve Damage Claim
• Nerve Damage Car Accident Compensation Claims

Making A Nerve Damage Lawsuit 

To file a nerve damage after surgery lawsuit, you should be ready to show that your healthcare provider was negligent and failed to provide you with quality medical treatment. You also need to show a direct link between the negligent action and the injury you suffered. This simply means that you have to demonstrate 

• Liability: in demonstrating liability, you need to show that the medical professional had the responsibility to care for you and ensure that you get the right treatment (duty of care) but that the medical professional breached that duty of care towards you.
• Causation: establishing liability alone is not enough. When you demonstrate liability without causation, you have not successfully proven your case. You need to show that the negligent treatment of the surgeon or any medical professional is the proximate cause of the injury or complications you have suffered.

To further strengthen your case and get you a deserved compensation figure, you will also have to show how the injury has affected your quality of life and general wellbeing, how you have been impacted emotionally, socially and even financially.

The following documents will help you do so;

• Comprehensive statements of all events that happened including the surgeon responsible
• Medical records, test and scan results
• Witness statements from close friends or family
• Proof of financial losses both past, present and estimated future losses
• Pictures of the extent of damage
• A medical report from another medical professional or nerve expert after carrying out medical examination on you

Our solicitors are willing to assist you to assess these documents and more as may be needed in your case.

How Much Compensation Can I Claim For Nerve Damage? 

The amount of settlement payout you can get for your nerve damage lawsuit is not fixed but depends on various factors which include; 

• The severity of injury, location of injury, 
• Estimated time for recovery, 
• Financial losses incurred including estimated future losses, 
• Provisions for loss of job, pension or inheritance, 
• Cost of further medical treatment, cost of hiring caregivers, 
• Costs of rehabilitation and therapies, 
• Costs of changes to your home to suit your new condition among others. 

Your compensation amounts may be in tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even more up to millions of pounds depending on the above-mentioned factors.

Using our medical negligence calculator, we can give you an idea of what you may receive while also looking at the Judicial College Payout Guidelines.

How Long Do I Have To Bring A Claim? 

There is a three-year limitation period within which you have to make your claims according to the Limitation Act of 1980. This period begins from the date the negligence occurred or when you first became aware of it.  

There are however exceptions to this rule, we would like you to look at our page on time limit to make claims to read more about it. Alternatively, you can reach out to our solicitors by filling out our online free claim assessment form and one of our solicitors will contact you to discuss your claims.

How Long Do Nerves Take To Heal? 

You may want to know how long does a damaged sciatic nerve take to heal, if a nerve damage can heal itself, or how long does facial nerve damage take to heal or if nerve damage heals over time or the average stretched nerve recovery time. These are some of the questions our clients have asked over the years.

Others include how long do cut nerves take to heal, can a trapped nerve free itself, can pudendal nerve damage heal, how long does nerve damage from blood-draw last and other similar questions.

The general answer to these questions is that the time taken for a nerve to heal will depend on the severity of the injury to your nerve and what type of nerve was affected.

For instance, a bruised nerve which is not cut should recover within 6-12 weeks. For a cut nerve, it should begin to grow at 1mm per day after about 4 weeks post-surgery. Also, a trapped nerve or pinched nerve can take between 4 to 6 weeks for it to free itself. 

A stretched nerve will recover if it is not stretched beyond 15% of its normal length. Most nerves can stretch an additional 6% of its original length. When stretched beyond 6%, nerve injury can occur.

Why Choose Medical negligence Direct?

At MND, we undertake your nerve damage compensation claims under our No Win No Fee policy also called Conditional Fee Agreement. This means that you can make your claims starting from the initial consultation session right to the final settlement of your claims without having to pay us, even if the claims were not successful.

However, after a successful claim and settlement received, we will deduct 25% of your settlement fee as “success fee” for the work we put in to ensure you get justice.

Reach out to us 0800 644 4240 today and let us discuss how we can help you file a nerve damage after surgery lawsuit.