www.clitheroeadvertiser.oo.uk


a £lm pay-out for victim


B y S u e P l u n k e t t sue.plunkett@ipress.co.uk Tvyitter: ©clithadve rtiser


A woman whose life was devastatedafteremergency surgery wasdelayedfbrseveral hourshasspokenofherrelief afterbeingawardedalmost£1m incompensationfollowinga battle with the NHS.


ClaireThornber,ofCitheroe,lost her business and her marriage and lives with constant pain af­ ter errors by both a privately operated mobile scanning unit contracted by the NHS and an


NHShospital. Claire(42)wassufFeringfrom


seriousspinaliryurycaudaequi-


na syndrome and the blunders meant that emergency surgery was delayed by several hours. If the errors had not been made Claire would have made


' a near full recovery. However, she has been left with signifi­ cant and constant pain in her legs, is doubly incontinent and


with loss of sexual function. Claire, was helped to chal­


lenge the mistakes by spinal injury specialists at JMW Solic­ itors. After JMWs intervention,


the East Lancashire Primary Care Trust, responsible for the Royal Blackburn Hospital and for contracting the private MRI scanning unit,admitted respon­


sibility for the errors and has now paid her £925,000 in com­


pensation. The money will pay for ac-


"commodation suitable for Claire’s disabilities; specialist equipment and is also aimed to compensate her for the loss of herbusinessandsignificantim- pact on her personal life. In the wake of her ordeal,


Claire also set up a support and awareness raisingorganisation, theCaudaEquinaSyndromeAs- sociation.tohelpothersufferers af the debilitating condition. Clairesaid: “Host everything


to cauda equina syndrome, but the tragedy is that if there had


been greater awareness of thi need for urgency things woulc


have been so different. The im­ pact of the errorshasbeen huge. “Beforemyiqjurylranasuc-


cessful cleaning business, but it was no longer an option due to the pain and my disability. All sense of normal life quickly


- vanished and the strain of eve­ rything caused my marriage to


breakdown. “Even socialising was made


impossible. No amount ofcom- pensation will ever make up for


that, but I am relieved that I’ll now have some help to cope and trytomakethebestofthings.


. “I set up the Cauda Equina


Syndrome Association as I want­ ed tohelptopreventothers from


going through the same ordeal by spreading the message about


the red flag signs. The condi­ tion wrecks lives, but with ear­ ly diagnosis and treatment it doesn’t have to be that way and things need to change so that medical staff are more alert.” EddieJones,headofmedical


TURN TO PAGE 6 -) Claire Thomber Your letters 12 • Village News 14-16 • Family announcements 41»Motors42-47*Sport 53-56 Independent School and Nursery


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