{"id":655661,"date":"2026-05-07T14:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/655661\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T14:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:24:13","slug":"nsw-woman-seeks-damages-from-health-district-over-amputated-lower-leg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/655661\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW woman seeks damages from health district over amputated lower leg"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman is suing the Hunter New England Local Health District (HNLHD), alleging doctors unnecessarily amputated her lower left leg.<\/p>\n

In her statement of claim tendered during a two-week Supreme Court civil hearing, Vesna Zvicer alleged medical negligence.<\/p>\n

She said her leg had been amputated despite it being “salvageable”.<\/p>\n

The court heard Ms Zvicer had had extreme generalised sepsis and acute compartment syndrome in her lower left leg.<\/p>\n

The court heard surgeons “prodded and poked” the leg muscle and determined the leg was dead and unviable.<\/p>\n

HNLHD barrister Richard Cheeney SC told the court that at the time, “the patient was desperately ill, battling infection, and it was a life or limb choice”.<\/p>\n

The court heard doctors feared Ms Zvicer’s heel could become gangrenous.<\/p>\n

Claim that mistakes were made<\/p>\n

Ms Zvicer’s barrister Adam Casselden SC said doctors could not have been certain her leg was necrotic without fasciotomy surgery.<\/p>\n

This is a procedure done to open the muscle up and relieve compartment pressure.<\/p>\n

In his closing submission today, Mr Casselden said mistakes had been made.<\/p>\n

“Just looking at the skin and poking it, doesn’t answer the question is this necrotic and how severe it is,” Mr Casselden said.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Vesna Zvicer is seeking damages from Hunter New England Local Health District. (Supplied: Vesna Zvicer)<\/p>\n

Mr Casselden told Justice Edward Muston the records did not support the conclusion that the leg was necrotic.<\/p>\n

“There is no evidence in the clinical records that could allow Your Honour to find that this left leg was functionless,” he said.<\/p>\n

The barrister then referred to a photo of the lower left leg taken two days after Ms Zvicer’s admission.<\/p>\n

“There was an assumption there was muscle death. Our case is there wasn’t,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The photo shows a good looking, live leg.”<\/p>\n

Justice Muston intervened, saying: “The photo doesn’t show compartments because you need to look inside.”<\/p>\n

Mr Casselden said: “But it shows that it looks healthy.”<\/p>\n

He told the court that sometimes limbs could be salvageable after 24 hours of compartment pressure.<\/p>\n

Mr Casselden said the “life-altering decision” to amputate was “based solely on the absence of pain”.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The case is being heard in the NSW Supreme Court. (ABC News: Jak Rowland)<\/p>\n

Choice between ‘life or limb’<\/p>\n

Mr Cheeney said doctors had worked to save Ms Zvicer’s life.<\/p>\n

“ICU staff noted increased discolouration in her foot and there were colour changes,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“The patient is being recorded as being so ill that the surgery needs to happen in the hour.”<\/p>\n

He said the surgeons felt she was at grave risk.<\/p>\n

“It is obviously clinicians dealing with the possibility of losing Ms Zvicer entirely,” Mr Cheeney said.<\/p>\n

He rejected claims that Ms Zvicer was in a fit enough state to undergo the compartment pressure-relieving surgery.<\/p>\n

“It was a non-functioning limb, the patient is desperately ill and it was a life or limb choice,” he said.<\/p>\n

Damages are also being sought on behalf of Ms Zvicer’s children.<\/p>\n

Her legal team said Ms Zvicer and her children had suffered nervous shock, psychiatric shock, depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n

Closing submissions will continue tomorrow, and the judge is expected to reserve his decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman is suing the Hunter New England Local Health District (HNLHD), alleging doctors unnecessarily amputated her lower…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,317011,317015,44,85241,317013,317012,317014],"class_list":["post-655661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-hunter-new-england-local-health-district","tag-newcastle-hospital","tag-news","tag-nsw-supreme-court","tag-vesna-zvicer","tag-woman-says-doctors-amputated-a-health-leg","tag-womans-leg-amputated"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}