Trust must pay £4.4m for failure to warn about risks of spinal surgery

An NHS trust will have to pay £4.4m (€5m; $6.1m) in damages to a patient left permanently disabled by a spinal disc operation because the surgeon failed to explain the risk of spinal cord damage, even though he performed the operation competently.

A High Court judge has ruled that the patient would not have gone ahead with the operation if the risks had been properly explained and therefore that Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust must compensate her.1

Tracy Hassell was a 41 year old mother of three and head of year at …