'Transplant hell' man loses out on damages
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A man who was given a cancerous kidney in a transplant operation was yesterday awarded pounds 21,286 in damages - but will not receive a penny and may have to pay legal costs because he was previously offered pounds 25,000 in settlement.
Peter Sumners, 51, from Haywards Heath in West Sussex, underwent the operation in June 1986, but it was seven months before he was told that the organ was contaminated.
He told Mr Justice Collins at the High Court in London that he went through "hell" during months of dialysis and radiotherapy before he went into remission. The judge yesterday awarded Mr Sumners pounds 17,500 for his pain and suffering in what he called a "unique case".
"It is difficult to imagine how appalling the knowledge that one has cancer must be, particularly where it has come in circumstances such as I have described," the judge said. "When, added to that, there is misdiagnosis, unnecessary radiotherapy and an apparent giving up on treatment, the trauma is even worse."
While the judge said he had "enormous sympathy" for Mr Sumners and wished he could make an exception in his case, he added: "To make an order in his favour would be my heart ruling my head. I would like to but I fear it wouldn't stand up if it was considered further."
The balance of the award was made up of miscellaneous expenses, including loss of earnings, bringing it up to pounds 21,286 - pounds 25,566 including interest.
But Mr Sumners's solicitor, Stephen Smith, said the award would be swallowed up by the court's order that Mr Sumners must pay the costs of the action after the beginning of March 1993, when Mid Downs Health Authority and Brighton Health Authority made the payment into court. He said an appeal would be considered against the pounds 17,500 portion of the award as it was considered to be too low for the pain and suffering Mr Sumners experienced. After the judgment Mr Sumners said that he felt "gutted".
Last week, the judge said staff at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton "could not really have made greater blunders in the way they treated Mr Sumners once they realised that they had put in a potentially cancerous kidney".
But he ruled that the hospital was not negligent in failing to diagnose the kidney as cancerous, because of the speed at which transplants had to be done.
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