Friday, March 6th, 2020
Man who swallowed his false teeth wins almost £200,000 in damages
In this action for clinical negligence which went to proof before Lady Wise, the pursuer was successful in showing that his medical treatment at Wishaw General Hospital in 2013 to retrieve his dental plate which he had inadvertently swallowed was negligent. He had been admitted to hospital and one of the surgeons attempted to retrieve his swallowed dental plate by endoscope but, in doing so, tore the pursuer’s oesophagus causing him to sustain very serious injuries.
The case is also instructive about the importance of ensuring that medical experts speaking to breach of duty come from the correct discipline. The judge held that the defenders had not done so as they had 2 Upper GI surgeons speaking to the actions of the surgeon under attack, who in fact was a colorectal surgeon. Only the pursuer had an expert who was also a colorectal surgeon.
Robin Cleland from Compass acted as Junior Counsel for the pursuer.
A link to the judgement can be found here.