Lavelle Partners secures significant settlement for man who has lost most of the power in the lower half of his body due to a delayed diagnosis following the misreading of an MRI.

The Plaintiff in this matter was a man who was referred to a regional hospital by his GP with a progressive rash, back pain, difficulty passing urine, and altered sensation in his lower limbs.

At the hospital, he underwent an MRI and was advised that he had suffered transverse myelitis, an inflamed spinal cord. He was transferred to another hospital for neurological review, following which he was discharged.

Despite his discharge, our client continued to suffer loss of power in his legs, urinary hesitancy, sexual dysfunction, and bowel dysfunction. He sought a second opinion four months later and was referred to a Dublin hospital to undergo a spinal angiogram. The angiogram revealed a dural AV fistula disturbance and showed no evidence of myelitis. Our client suffered permanent weakness of his legs, loss of bladder control, and erectile dysfunction as a result of the delay in treatment.

Lavelle Partners were instructed to investigate his circumstances and we obtained expert evidence from a UK-based consultant neurophysiologist. The expert advised that the original MRI scan should have been read correctly and that if it had been, our client would have received the correct treatment at an earlier stage. If our client had received the correct treatment earlier, he would only have minimal symptoms and it would have been likely that our client could go back to work and that his bladder, sexual, and bowel function would have been near normal.

Proceedings were issued against the HSE and the case was successfully settled for a significant sum plus costs in advance of the trial date.

For more information, please contact Avril Scally, Partner and Head of the Medical Negligence Department or Nicholas Moore, Medical Negligence Solicitor.