Mum compensated by Hospital Trust after errors in post-surgery care led to blood clot on her lung

A Kirkby mum has been compensated by King’s Mill Hospital after errors in post surgery care led to a potentially deadly blood clot on her lung.
Tina Grace, of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, who has accepted a compensation settlement from Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.Tina Grace, of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, who has accepted a compensation settlement from Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Tina Grace, of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, who has accepted a compensation settlement from Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Tina Grace, 44, told how she thought she was going to die after developing blood clot on her lung – caused because she was sent home from hospital without blood thinning medication or compression stockings after major surgery.

Tina, whose youngest child was two at the time, feared her children would be left motherless after suffering the complication following a hysterectomy.

Three weeks after her operation, she suffered a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in her leg which then travelled to her lung, causing a pulmonary embolism.

King’s Mill Hospital has admitted it should have prescribed anti-clotting medication and ordered her to wear compression stockings when she was discharged, but failed to do so.

Miss Grace was hospitalised for 11 days as a result and had to take blood-thinning drug Warfarin for six months after the clot, which she didn’t think she would survive.

She said: “I really felt like I could have died. I was terrified and it felt like every breath I took would be my last.”

Following legal representation from medical negligence specialists Hudgell Solicitors, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust accepted Miss Grace should have been discharged with the medication and stockings, and that on the balance of probabilities, the pulmonary embolism would have been avoided if that had been the case.

Miss Grace said the traumatic experience will live with her forever.

She had the hysterectomy on August 13, 2012, and was sent home five days afterwards.

She was very unwell and her parents, who questioned whether she should have been allowed out at the time, had to move in to care for her, and her two children, who were then aged 2 and 13.

But three weeks after the operation, Miss Grace suddenly became very breathless and unwell, with a burning sensation in her leg.

Her parents called an ambulance, and she was found to have had a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in her calf, which had broken up and travelled to her lung, causing the potentially-fatal blood clot.

Miss Grace had been at a high risk of developing a DVT as she had had major surgery, had been immobile for several days afterwards, and was classed as overweight.

She brought a clinical negligence claim against the hospital through Hudgell Solicitors, leading to the Trust admitting errors, and breach of duty by the nursing staff, as Miss Grace’ calls for help by pressing a bed calls bell after her operation also went unanswered.

Dr Andrew Haynes, Executive Medical Director at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “The Trust accepted that the claimant should have been discharged with thrombo-prophylaxis in August 2012, namely by the way of compression stockings and anticoagulation for six weeks.

“Apologies were given in November 2012 and a financial settlement was reached.

“We wish the claimant well for the future.”