Post by Lαrα on Apr 2, 2016 2:46:17 GMT -8
Having endured this minefield for the past 5 years, I think it is fair that the perils of suing because of medical negligence be realized fully before embarking. This is an overview of my case but I will be going into the practicalities of what you can expect and I won't be shying away from the unpleasant stuff. This hopefully will help someone else in a similar position.
As we all know, Cauda Equina Syndrome is such a complex spinal cord injury that many people just do not understand it but the same can be said with Spinal Cord Injury in general. The last thing that you want to have to do, is try to explain your own injury ( I say injury because the cord in damaged, from whatever means and purpose) and condition to a legal expert. When I set out looking for a solicitor (Laywer), I wanted to be represented by someone who has an informed and experienced understanding of Spinal Cord Injury but Cauda Equina especially so.
As time passed, my case evolved and so did the solicitors who were working on it. I do believe i had 3 different solicitors and several assistants who would work with each one. The first solicitor who took my case on, I liked, he had a lovely approach and I wanted him to take my case forward.
For some reason, he left the company, so I was given a different solicitor and then finally the 3rd one took over who brought the case to a somewhat 'successful' close.
I learnt that it was important to become active in my own case, I made sure that I knew what stage the case was up to and where it was going. Everything is based on your insurance company agreeing to fund the case and this remains in place providing the odds don't stack against you where the potential of you winning becomes less than 51% (around that mark).
Of course, all this then depends on so many factors, in fact my case started off extremely strong and then by the time we hit the 4.5 years mark, It was approximately 58% chance of winning the case. I now understand why some people give up on their case due to stress and emotions because you will revisit so many aspects of your injury again and again and circumstances that led to it and around it.
I was sent for all my medical examinations twice within the 5 years and some are not pleasant but time passes and you get through the bad parts because you have to. I had in total 11 expert witnesses from the medical professional. This was a significant case by any standard and complex, Cauda Equina Syndrome is not an easy thing to prove negligence of but it is very possible.
I will add to this and hopefully build up to something practically useful but please share any thoughts and feelings. In the following days, I will be talking about the practicalities etc.
To add, yes, I successfully won damages for the negligence caused by my doctor.