Disabled man wins £1.5m payout from hospital for operation blunder
By Tanya O’Rourke of the Telegraph and Argus
A health trust has agreed to pay compensation likely to total in excess of £1.5 million to the Bradford family of a disabled man who suffered a botched operation. Stuart Morley, 29, who has learning difficulties, suffered severe complications after undergoing surgery at St Mark’s Hospital in Middlesex.
Surgeons mistakenly closed Mr Morley’s bowel, which eventually burst and he was left needing another, life-saving operation, his mother Kath Morley said.
Almost a decade after the procedure, the family has been awarded a lump sum of £500,000 and will receive £25,000 every year for the rest of her son’s life, said Mrs Morley.
Mr Morley had been fitted with a colostomy bag at the age of 11, at St James’s Hospital, Leeds, after he was diagnosed with chronic constipation with overflow – a form of incontinence.
Mrs Morley said the family was referred to the Middlesex hospital where they were told by a consultant the operation was reversible.
But the colostomy was mistakenly closed leaving Mr Morley unable to pass waste. He suffered peritonitis and septicaemia and required extensive surgery to repair the damage, his mother said.
* Read more on this story in Wednesday’s T&A
Mr Morley is a client of Morrish Solicitors.
