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Natalie Witherington<\/p>\nIt’s an out-of-court settlementNatalie Witherington<\/p>\n
A mum has been left “terrified” after a botched routine injection left her shoulder so damaged that doctors thought she “had been in a car accident”. Natalie Witherington, 42, had visited a GP surgery for a simple pneumonia vaccination on September 22 when the incident happened.<\/p>\n
The mum-of-two says when the jab was administered it entered the “wrong part” of her left shoulder leaving her suffering \u201cexcruciating pain\u201d after what should have been a simple procedure. She says when doctors examined her shoulder, they said they had only seen similar damage to victim of a car crash.<\/p>\n
Natalie was later rushed to hospital where she had emergency surgery to wash out the joint. Doctors later diagnosed her with hemarthrosis – bleeding into the space around a joint – that was thought likely to have developed because of the injection.<\/p>\n
Now, Natalie says she doesn’t think her arm will ever be the “same again”.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI\u2019ve had to put up with a lot in life, but this has been a nightmare, and it\u2019s left me terrified to have any kind of injection. I had physio for three months, but I\u2019m in continual pain and still can\u2019t move my arm properly \u2013 I don\u2019t think it will ever be the same again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d given the nurse full access to my shoulder, but she came up behind me and appeared out of nowhere to give me the injection. I\u2019ve had loads of injections, but this one felt different. It felt like it had gone through the bone and brought tears to my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe excruciating pain just didn\u2019t seem to die down and kept getting worse to the point of me climbing the walls with pain. I rang the doctor, who said he\u2019d never seen anything like this before in his life. And when I was in hospital, a consultant said that for a woman of my age, he\u2019d never seen so much damage to a shoulder unless they\u2019d been in a bad car accident.”<\/p>\n
Natalie stayed in hospital for 11 days.<\/p>\n
Hudgell Solicitors said Haxby Group, the healthcare organisation responsible for the surgery, fully denied liability but still agreed to a \u00a335,000 settlement out of court.<\/p>\n
Hudgell Solicitors gained medical evidence from a nursing expert who concluded that there had been a breach of duty \u201cnot to correctly identify the site and administer the injection\u201d.<\/p>\n
Natalie, who suffers from several medical conditions, including Crohn\u2019s disease, said: \u201cWhat annoyed me more than anything else is that they kept saying they didn\u2019t do anything wrong and that it didn\u2019t happen. I know all medical staff are under so much pressure and I would have been quite happy to just to crack on and forget about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll it would have taken was an acceptance they were at fault, but it never came and that\u2019s when I got the help of Hudgells and Kirsty, who was amazing from day one and gave me the courage to stand up for myself. I didn\u2019t think we had a hope, and I was shell-shocked with the settlement. But it was a bit of Catch-22 situation as all I was fighting for was an acceptance of blame that the injection was misplaced. I\u2019ve never received that \u2013 and I probably never will.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Haxby Group Scarborough spokesperson said: “We do not comment on the detail of cases involving individual patients or those managed by the NHS Resolution service (following a claim being made against the practice). We are grateful to all patients who share their experiences with us and always strive to provide the best possible care to our communities.”<\/p>\n