Joyce, 59, West Midlands

With JMW's help, a woman has secured £700,000 compensation following complications with her knee replacement surgery. 

If you are looking for information on how JMW can help you to make a claim yourself, you can go directly to our knee replacement surgery negligence claims page.

Joyce was 59 years old when she had a left knee replacement. She had been having problems with her knees for some years and was becoming progressively less mobile and experiencing a lot of pain.

The operation was performed by a short-term locum orthopaedic surgeon, who left the hospital trust shortly afterwards.

Misalignment of the prosthesis

Although nothing untoward was recorded in the operation records, the following morning Joyce was informed by her surgeon that there was a degree of misalignment of the prosthesis. A close eye would be kept on this and she was then discharged.

Both knees continued to give Joyce a lot of discomfort and in September 2005 she had the right knee operated on while under the care of the same trust.

Joyce never regained a good level of mobility following the surgery and continued to have pain and stiffness in both knees. In May 2007 her GP sent her for an opinion from an orthopaedic consultant in another hospital.

The consequences

This consultant was very critical of the way the surgery to the left knee had been carried out and he also claimed that the prosthesis in the right knee was of the wrong size. He said that she would need revision of both knees in the near future but Joyce is very reluctant to undergo any further surgery.

Joyce is now very disabled and requires crutches and a mobility scooter to get about. She had to take early retirement from her job some years ago.

Settlement

The case was settled by one of the expert solicitors at JMW who obtained £700,000 in compensation for Joyce.