Share:
400,000 euros compensation for paraplegia
Because of a paraplegia as a result of several treatment errors, the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Hamm has awarded a patient a compensation of 400,000 euros. This high for Germany very high sum is justified because of the "serious health consequences," the OLG ruled in a judgment on Thursday, February 2, 2017, announced (Az .: 26 U 111/15). After that, a major surgery without a confirmed diagnosis can be a gross treatment error in itself.
The 57-year-old patient from Oberhausen was a registered nurse. For years, she suffered from back pain, mainly in the lumbar spine.
(Image: stockpics / fotolia.com) At the end of 2008, she was examined in a hospital in Wickede. The doctors recommended surgery on the cervical spine, specifically a stiffening connection of several vertebrae and the implantation of an intervertebral disc prosthesis.
Immediately after the operation, the woman suffered from increasing weakness of both arms and both legs. Also, a reoperation could not prevent a paraplegia developed below the third cervical vertebra. Since then, the former nurse relies on a wheelchair and help from others.
With her complaint, the woman demanded a compensation of 400,000 euros. The operation had not been displayed and also incorrectly executed.
Like the district court of Arnsberg, the higher regional court (Higher Regional Court) Hamm has now awarded her the required amount. Both courts relied on the judgment of an expert.
Thereafter, the possibilities of a further "conservative treatment" without surgery were not sufficiently examined. In any case, however, the severe procedure was not allowed to be carried out without first performing an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) examination to confirm the diagnosis underlying the surgery.
The surgical method was also wrong. Thus, no more than three vertebrae should have been stiffened together - and certainly not in the immediate vicinity of the intervertebral disc prosthesis.
Altogether the OLG Hamm classified the treatment as "grossly flawed". That even applies even for the omission of the MRI examination.
In case of gross treatment errors, it can be assumed that these are also the cause, here the paraplegia. This could not refute the hospital, so the OLG Hamm in its meanwhile valid and already written verdict of 11 November 2016.
The awarded compensation of 400,000 euros is quite high for German standards. For the loss of both kidneys, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm awarded a young person a compensation of 200,000 euros (judgment of 3 July 2015, ref .: 26 U 104/14, JurAgentur report dated 19 August 2015). For the loss of function of the left shoulder, a 47-year-old woman received € 50,000 (judgment of the Higher Regional Court Hamm of 1 July 2014, ref .: 26 U 4/13, JurAgentur Report of 1 September 2014).
In 2006, a manager from Bavaria received compensation of five million euros, which became a guard com puter through a failed operation. The record-breaking sum, however, was not judged by a court, but agreed in a settlement. In addition, the amount includes not only a compensation for pain, but also compensation for material damage, especially loss of earnings. Because of the six-figure annual salary of the manager, this was particularly high, according to his lawyer. mwo / fle