Cancer patient who had wrong rib removed awarded damages by Castle Hill Hospital

A cancer patient who had the wrong rib removed by surgeons has been awarded "substantial damages" from the hospital responsible.

The woman, who has not been named, was admitted to Castle Hill Hospital, in Cottingham, near Hull, for an operation in 2017 after scans showed a potentially cancerous growth on her seventh rib.

But two weeks later she was told that her entire sixth rib had been removed by mistake and that she would need another operation to remove the correct one.

She said: "When I was told that they’d taken out the wrong rib I was in complete disbelief and I just said to the surgeon, 'you must be joking'.

"I remember the surgeon being very blasé about it, and even making a comment about not making the same mistake again as he’d have more space to work in the second time around.

"My husband is usually a really placid man, but he was furious at how the surgeon showed a lack of care, concern and compassion. It was like it wasn’t a big deal, and he was trying to play down the seriousness of it all."

The patient, of East Yorkshire, had been suffering from worsening chest pains and a cough for sometime, so much so it was impacting on her quality of life.

Following the second procedure in October 2017, the woman said she had suffered from chronic chest pains and had to quit her job as a healthcare assistant.

Her husband took voluntary redundancy to care for her. The couple have spent most of their time living in their static home on a caravan site as she struggles to walk up stairs.

'Completely unavoidable'

She said: “The impact of this mistake has been immense on my life, as I have gone from being a very healthy andactive woman to being a bit of a couch potato.

"We used to look after our granddaughter whilst our daughter was at work, but again I’ve found that very difficult and it has been heartbreaking not to be able to play with her like I used to.

"This has also caused me to fear hospitals. I’ve had to go back for other reasons since and I was really fearful and not happy to be there at all."

The Hull Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust admitted breaching its duty of care over the mistake, which is classed as a "never event" - an incident which should never happen.

It agreed "significant" out-of-court damages.

Helena Wood, of Hudgell Solicitors, which represented the woman said: "This was a basic, completely unavoidable error which has had a hugely negative impact on my client’s quality of life.

"Sadly, hundreds of these mistakes are being made in hospitals each year, in some cases causing seriouslong-term suffering and harm.

"These commonly include procedures being performed on the wrong area of a patient, like happened tomy client, to surgical instruments and swabs being left inside patients after medical procedures."

A spokesperson for NHS Humber Health Partnership said: "Our aim is always to provide the highest possible standards of patient care, and we deeply regret that, on this occasion, those standards were not met.

“The error was identified through our incident reporting process, and we have worked closely with the Ms Carrick-Smith’s solicitors to ensure the matter was resolved fairly.

“As a learning organisation, we are committed to reflecting on incidents like this to drive improvement and ensure lessons are learned. Since this incident, we have implemented additional measures and safeguards to minimise the risk of a similar error occurring in the future. We remain dedicated to continuously improving the care and services we provide.”

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