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Spinal injuries through medical negligence can lead to severe, life-changing circumstances. If you or a loved one has suffered a spinal injury, it’s natural for you to be feeling all sorts of emotions. Moving forwards is possible with the support of a specialist spinal cord injury lawyer. Our experts can assess your case and provide guidance on the next steps – and will be able to handle your claim right through to settlement. With Minton Morrill’s proven expertise in handling complex spinal injury claims, we will thoroughly investigate the circumstance of your spinal injury claim, and work to secure the compensation you deserve.
The spinal cord is a delicate part of the body formed of nerves that connects the body with the brain. If this cord is damaged, it can result in a spinal injury. Unfortunately, there are times where spinal problems or spine damage are caused through medical negligence.
Spinal injury claims aim to secure justice and spinal injury compensation for individuals who have suffered spinal cord injuries through the negligent actions of others, such as health care professionals. At Minton Morrill we have some of the best medical negligence solicitors, who are vastly experienced in helping clients secure substantial spinal injury compensation payouts across the UK.
In our experience, spinal injury claims usually focus on delay in diagnosis and treatment of an underlying health condition; for instance, if a child is suffering from scoliosis of the spine, were the appropriate investigations and treatments, including surgery, performed in a timely fashion and, if not, has this led to the child suffering an avoidable deterioration.
The other key area often investigated, is the standard of spinal cord surgery; specifically, whether the decision to proceed to surgery was appropriate, the standard of surgery performed and the competency/experience of the surgeon.
If you or someone you know has suffered spinal injuries and would like to discuss this and speak to a spinal injury attorney about a potential spinal injury compensation claim, call us today on 0113 345 2385 or complete an enquiry forms.
Our teams are also here to help if you are looking to pursue:
At the outset, our specialist spinal injury solicitors will speak with you and find out exactly what has happened. If it is felt that an avoidable injury has been sustained because of an accident or poor medical care (including a delay in diagnosis) we will fully investigate a spinal cord injury claim. We do this by instructing top independent medical experts to report on what has happened.
NHS or private hospital litigation can be complex, so it is important that you speak to some of the best medical negligence solicitors in the industry.
When medical treatment goes wrong and causes a spinal cord injury, it is crucial to speak with a professional, experienced and specialist spinal cord injury lawyer to help you.
Our medical negligence solicitors at Minton Morrill have this experience and specialise solely in this complex area of law. The team has an impressive number of accredited panel members on the AvMA and Law Society clinical negligence scheme, when compared to other law firm handling medical negligence claims in Leeds and Manchester as well as a national presence acting for clients across the country such as Kent, Hampshire and Cumbria.
Our medical negligence team is top ranked in the Tier 1 category in the prestigious Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners annual reviews in recognition of their medical negligence work. The department is described as ‘One of the market leaders’ noted for ‘achieving high-value settlements’ in birth injury claims and also for its ‘superb reputation for handling a wide range of clinical negligence claims’.
The department is led by Simon Minton. Simon and Julia Morrill are both recognised as the only two Leading Individuals for clinical negligence in the Leeds area. The other department members: Sahida Patel and Guy Pomphrey all have a wealth of experience. Speak to our spinal injury solicitors today to work towards succeeding with your claim.
Minton Morrill also has a leading Court of Protection department to assist injured children, adults, and their families manage, and access spinal injury compensation money held by the Courts should they require help with this.
Throughout our years of experience, we have seen spinal cord injuries been caused by a range of different reasons. We have helped clients with spinal cord injury claims covering:
The failure to diagnose and treat a spine or neck fracture (as this may not be picked up on an x-ray), meaning the fracture is left untreated and worsening the injury.
Conditions not being monitored correctly by healthcare professionals following spinal surgery can result in your injury becoming worse than it was before the procedure, particularly if you have experience complications during surgery
Inadequate spinal surgery, causing you more pain than you have prior to treatment
Incorrect use of anaesthetic and monitoring of blood pressure, during a procedure
Receiving a procedure you did not need
Delays in spinal cord surgery
Cauda equina syndrome, this is a rare condition where nerves in the spine become compressed very suddenly
The symptoms of a spinal cord injury are different depending on exactly which part of the spinal cord has been damaged and the severity of this. Symptoms may include problems with movement (paralysis), sensation (inability to feel hot or cold) and sometimes difficulty with bladder or bowel control.
As a general rule, paralysis is more likely to occur when the spinal cord is damaged at the top, closer to the brain. This can result in a very serious injury, and if you feel it was a result of medical negligence, our spinal injury lawyers can discuss your case to help you to decide if you should start a spinal injury compensation claim and advise you throughout the whole process.
For more information about claiming lower spinal injury compensation, head to our cauda equina page.
Paralysis is where there is a loss of body function/control. When the spinal cord is damaged across its entire width, a complete injury, there is likely to be full loss of body function below the level of the spinal cord where the injury occurred.
With a less severe injury to the spinal cord, where it does spread across the entire width, some body functions below this level may still remain intact. This is known as an incomplete injury.
Typically, people with paralysis because of injury to the spinal cord retain body function control above the point where the injury to the spinal cord occurred; arm control, for example, with paralysis of the legs and lower body generally.
If someone is diagnosed with a serious spinal cord injury it is likely that it will be classified as either paraplegia or tetraplegia. Each condition is explained below:
Paraplegia is where there is damage to the thoracic and lumbar spine (lower part of the body) causing problems with sensation and function. It typically limits someone’s ability to use their legs.
Tetraplegia is the condition where damage is caused to the spinal cord in the neck (the cervical spine). An injury to the cervical spine can cause problems throughout someone’s body, including the lower and upper half so that arms, chest, stomach muscles and legs may all be affected.
Click below to watch a video of a courageous man living with tetraplegia.
The spinal cord cannot repair itself like other parts of the human body. If an injury occurs, doctors will need to investigate and identify exactly where the injury to the spinal cord has occurred before considering treatment options.
Treatment options may include:
Surgery
Medication
Physical therapy and Physiotherapy
Rehabilitation
Counselling
When a serious spinal injury occurs, it is unlikely that it can be fully repaired so the focus of treatment is on rehabilitation and learning to live with the injury, whether this is by utilising technology, like wheelchairs, or with counselling. Psychological support and, often, intensive physical therapy to strengthen other parts of the body, is usually considered as part of a broad rehabilitation plan.
Spinal injury rehabilitation programmes are available across the country through the NHS and leading spinal charities. In our experience the level of services available are not always in line with what the client wants to achieve, particularly, if they are determined to work on certain health aspects within a short timeframe.
Successful medical negligence claims can provide the financial resources to obtain intensive private rehabilitation treatment in short timeframes. This is often of particular importance to clients who want to move forward with their lives. A programme of physiotherapy or counselling may help achieve this.
We have successfully secured large spinal injury compensation damages for our clients over the years and you can read about of client’s experience in our spinal injury case studies.
If you or someone you know has suffered spinal injuries and would like to discuss this and speak to a spinal injury attorney about a potential spinal injury compensation claim, call us today on 0113 345 2385 or complete an enquiry forms.
The amount of financial spinal injury compensation someone will receive for an avoidable Spinal Cord injury will be determined by the location and severity of the injury.
An injury to some parts of the spinal cord can cause more severe problems and disabilities, than in other part which would lead to a potentially very high value claim for spinal injury compensation in the millions of pounds. Therefore, outlining the complexity of these types of claims and it is difficult to put an exact figure on settlements.
Any spinal injury claim is, however, also affected by the age of the client, their underlying health, employment, and family situation. This is why Minton Morrill’s team of leading clinical negligence lawyers provide a bespoke service to every client to make sure they receive the maximum compensation for their needs, now and in the future. We pride ourselves on this standard of service.
We offer a range of different funding options to fund a medical negligence compensation claim. Our spinal injury solicitors will carefully assess the options available and advise you, clearly, what is the best option for you, including No Win No Fee Agreements.
Some of our Spinal Injury Successful Claims
