Cauda Equina Symptoms Caused By Delay

Have your cauda equina symptoms been caused by a delay in surgical treatment? If so, please get in touch with our team of solicitors. You could be entitled to make a claim for compensation.

Causation in cauda equina claims

When making a cauda equina claim, you will have to prove to things:

1. Firstly, that medical practitioners have breached their duty of care towards you – for example, by failing to treat cauda equina syndrome quickly enough
2. Secondly, that this breach of duty caused you to suffer injuries that would have been avoided, but for the breach

The second point is called ‘causation’. Put simply, your solicitor must consider whether your current symptoms have been caused by a delay, or whether they are a natural consequence of your condition. If they were directly caused (or exacerbated) by a delay, you will have grounds for a compensation claim.

Typical CES claim

Typically the cauda equina claims we deal with involve a patient who developed the symptoms of cauda equina syndrome and sought medical help – either from a GP or A&E department.

However, medical practitioners overlooked the possibility of cauda equina syndrome, or did not think that the patient’s symptoms warranted cauda equina investigations. Consequently the patient was discharged or referred to another service, such as physiotherapy.

Sometimes the patient will repeatedly attend their GP, NHS Walk-In or A&E, but will repeatedly be discharged without a diagnosis of cauda equina syndrome. Eventually the condition is identified and treated, but by that point irreparable damage has occurred.

Delays in cauda equina care

In these examples, the patient would have had an excelled prognosis, had they undergone an MRI scan and decompression surgery when they first presented. But because of the delays in diagnosis and treatment, the nerves have become severely harmed.

Once the nerves become extensively injured, no amount of treatment can repair the damage. The patient may experience some improvement in symptoms, but most will be left with permanent neurological issues that will change their lives for the worse.

Such issues can include disability, incontinence of urine and faeces, sexual dysfunction, chronic pain, numbness around the saddle area and foot drop.

Make a claim today

Have your problems been caused by a delay in cauda equina surgery? If so, please get in touch with us and speak to a solicitor. You could be the victim of medical negligence, meaning you are legally entitled to compensation.

Please call us free on 0800 234 3300, from a mobile click to call 01275 334030 or complete our Free Online Enquiry for a no cost, no obligation opinion.

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