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Stuart's Story

 "I went into my local hospital in March 2004 for what should have been a routine operation to remove my gall bladder. Instead, it became a nightmare..
the surgeon had accidentally severed my bile duct.
He immediately acknowledged his mistake to my wife - he actually held his hands up and said 'It's my fault - I'm totally responsible!'

I was in a bad way, I had multiple organ failure and septicaemia, I was nine weeks in Intensive Care in Bristol, where I had eight further operations. I was there a total of 6 months.

Prior to all this I had worked in a paper mill.  I kept in touch with the works' doctor at the paper mill but there was no possibility of my returning to my old job, which included risk assessments of heavy lifting and climbing ladders attached to big machines - I can't lift or climb anymore.

When the 12 months insurance covering my mortgage payments had expired we were in financial difficulties, too. So I accepted a redundancy package.

My brother in law had heard of Thompsons so we made contact and a Thompsons Medical Negligence lawyer - Cathryn Davies - came to see me at home. She looked and acted very professional, and proved to be so. She made an instant assessment of what had happened to me and it was spot on. She made sure we were kept in the picture throughout, too. She wouldn't do anything without telling us.

Her secretary, Melanie, would even phone before sending a letter to us to explain what it was about and see if there was anything we might not understand.

Though the surgeon had admitted responsibility for his mistake very early on there were legal issues over what's called "Causation" - meaning had I any other conditions that could have made my problem worse. Despite this, the hospital trust started making offers for a settlement, but Thompsons' Cathryn kept turning them down.

Eventually the trust wanted a meeting with their barrister and Thompsons barrister present. The trust's barrister seemed to be in a losing position almost straight away and left the meeting early. Eventually we got an offer we accepted. To be honest, it was more than we expected and we're over the moon! I do my best to get by. I can't bend over without difficulty. I can't fill a kettle full of water - but I can fill it enough for 2 cups.

There has been a lot of publicity surrounding my case and I now get contacted by complete strangers who've seen or heard about me and suffered similar damage and wanting to know what to do about it. I advise them to get in touch with Thompsons."