Bowel Injury Compensation Claims
Perforation, misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis
Something went badly wrong with your treatment, and you want to know whether it should have. That is a fair question and it has an answer, though it is not always the one people hope for. We handle bowel and abdominal negligence claims on a No Win No Fee basis, and we will tell you honestly which kind of case yours looks like.
Regulated solicitors
Years' experience
No Win No Fee
A bad outcome is not the same as negligence
This is the part most websites skip, and skipping it does nobody any favours. Bowel surgery goes wrong sometimes without anyone being at fault, and appendicitis is genuinely difficult to diagnose. Two separate questions have to be answered before there is a claim, and they are answered in this order.
Did the care fall below a reasonable standard?
The test is not whether a better doctor might have done something different. It is whether what happened would be supported by a responsible body of medical opinion in that field. If a reasonable group of surgeons or GPs would have done the same thing, there is no breach, even if the outcome was terrible.
That said, a body of opinion is not accepted automatically. It has to stand up to logical scrutiny. An independent expert instructed for the claim is who answers this, not us and not the hospital.
Would proper care probably have changed anything?
This is the one that decides most bowel claims, and it is the one nobody warns people about. Even where the care was clearly poor, you have to show that getting it right would probably have led to a different result.
An appendix that had already perforated before anyone could reasonably have operated. A cancer that had already spread by the date it should have been picked up. A bowel that was going to give way whatever anyone did. In each of those the care may have been poor and the claim still fails, because the delay did not cause the harm.
Why we would rather say this on the page than on the phone.
Clinical negligence claims take a long time and they ask a lot of people who are already unwell. Going into one without understanding the causation question is how people end up two years in, exhausted, and disappointed by an answer somebody could have flagged at the start. If your case turns out to be one of the ones that will not run, we will tell you early rather than late.
What tends to go wrong
Bowels perforate for many reasons, most of which are nobody’s fault. These are the situations where a claim is worth investigating.Bowels perforate for many reasons, most of which are nobody’s fault. These are the situations where a claim is worth investigating.
Something was missed
- Appendicitis sent home. Someone presents with abdominal pain, is discharged, and returns later with a ruptured appendix and peritonitis. The question is what was recorded, what examination was done, and whether the safety-netting advice was adequate.
- Bowel cancer symptoms not investigated. Bleeding, a change in bowel habit or unexplained weight loss that should have triggered an urgent referral and did not.
- Sepsis not recognised. Deterioration after abdominal surgery that was not acted on quickly enough.
- Scan or sample misreported. Where the imaging or the histology showed the problem and it was not picked up.
Something was done badly
- Bowel perforated during a procedure. A recognised complication of colonoscopy, endoscopy and abdominal surgery, so the issue is rarely that it happened. It is whether the technique fell short, and above all whether it was spotted and dealt with quickly enough afterwards.
- Post-operative complications not managed. An anastomotic leak, an abscess or adhesions where the warning signs were there and nothing was done.
- A hernia repair that went wrong. Including problems following mesh. See hernia injury claims
- Consent that was not properly taken. Where the risks of the procedure were never explained in a way you could weigh up.
A note on delayed diagnosis, because it is the most common of these.
With a missed diagnosis the damage is usually the difference between the treatment you had and the treatment you would have had if it had been caught on time. That difference is what the claim is about. It is why the date things should have been picked up matters so much, and why the medical records rather than anyone’s memory decide these cases.
What a bowel negligence claim can cover
Compensation is not a reward for what happened. It is an attempt to put you, so far as money can, in the position you would have been in had the negligence not occurred, which on these claims means comparing two futures rather than valuing one injury.
General damages
For the injury itself and its effect on your life. On bowel claims this frequently includes the things people find hardest to talk about: a stoma, whether temporary or permanent, continence problems, adhesions and chronic pain, and the psychological effect of any of those.
Where negligence caused or worsened a psychiatric injury, that is compensable in its own right. See PTSD compensation claims.
Financial losses
- Earnings lost, and future earnings where you cannot return to the same work
- Care and help at home, including unpaid care given by family
- Stoma supplies, dietary costs and ongoing treatment
- Further surgery that would not otherwise have been needed
- Travel, and any adaptations you have had to make
Where negligence has shortened life expectancy, there are separate and specific rules, and a family should take advice rather than assume.
There is no figure on this page, and here is why.
On a delayed diagnosis claim the compensation reflects the difference the negligence made, not the seriousness of the illness. Two people with identical outcomes can have very different claims depending on how much earlier the problem should have been caught. Any number quoted before the expert evidence exists is describing somebody else. Ask us what your claim would need to establish, which is a question with a real answer.
Evidence that supports a bowel negligence claim
Almost everything that decides one of these claims is already written down somewhere, and obtaining it is our job rather than yours. What you can usefully do is fill in the parts the records do not capture.
Made a complaint already, or been given an apology?
Neither harms a claim, and an apology is not an admission of legal liability. If a hospital has told you something went wrong under the duty of candour, that is a reason to get advice rather than a substitute for it, and the three year clock is still running.
No Win No Fee medical negligence claims
A No Win No Fee agreement, properly called a Conditional Fee Agreement, means there is nothing to pay upfront. If the claim does not succeed, you do not pay us for our work, subject to the terms of your agreement.
If it succeeds, a success fee agreed with you in advance comes out of your compensation. There is a legal cap on that fee, and it is worth understanding properly: it is calculated on your damages for the injury itself and your past financial losses, not on the whole settlement, because future losses are left out of the calculation. Your agreement will set out the exact percentage in writing before you sign.
Ask us to walk you through the figures, including what happens to disbursements and whether any insurance is taken out on your behalf, rather than taking a headline percentage on trust. That applies to any firm you speak to.
Bowel negligence claims
your questions answered
The questions we are asked most, answered plainly.
Can I claim if my appendicitis was misdiagnosed?
Possibly, but it depends on more than the misdiagnosis itself. Appendicitis is genuinely difficult to diagnose and being sent home once does not, on its own, mean anyone was negligent. The questions are whether a reasonable clinician would have examined or investigated further on the information available, and then, separately, whether acting sooner would probably have avoided what happened to you. Where an appendix had already perforated before anyone could reasonably have operated, the claim usually fails on that second question even if the care was poor.
My bowel was perforated during a colonoscopy. Is that automatically negligence?
No. Perforation is a recognised complication of colonoscopy, endoscopy and abdominal surgery, and it happens to careful operators. If the risk was properly explained to you beforehand and the technique was reasonable, the fact that it happened does not by itself found a claim. What more often does is what happened next: whether the perforation was recognised promptly, and whether the response to your deterioration afterwards was quick enough. That is where these cases are usually won or lost.
Can I claim for a delay in diagnosing bowel cancer?
Often these are claims worth investigating, and the key issue is timing. The claim is about the difference the delay made: whether the cancer would have been at an earlier stage, whether treatment would have been less severe, and whether the outlook would have been better. That means the date at which symptoms should have prompted an urgent referral matters enormously, and it is established from the GP and hospital records rather than from recollection. Where a cancer had already spread by the point it should have been caught, the delay may not have caused the harm.
How long do I have to bring a medical negligence claim?
Usually three years, running from the treatment or from the date you first knew that your injury was connected to the care you received, which on a missed diagnosis is often considerably later. Where the injured person is a child, the limitation period does not run until their eighteenth birthday, and the three years runs from then, so they have until they are twenty-one. Where someone lacks the mental capacity to conduct a claim, the period does not run while that remains the case. Note that this is a suspension rather than an abolition, so if capacity is regained the clock starts. If you have read anywhere that there is simply no time limit for children, that is not right.
Do I have to complain to the hospital before making a claim?
No. A complaint under the NHS procedure and a legal claim are separate things and neither is a precondition of the other. A complaint can produce a useful account of what happened, and where a hospital has told you something went wrong under the duty of candour that is worth taking advice about. What a complaint does not do is stop the three year clock, so do not wait for a response before finding out where you stand.
Can I claim on behalf of a relative who has died?
Yes, in the sense that the claim is brought on behalf of their estate by their personal representative, which is usually the executor or an administrator. There are separate routes as well: a bereavement award for a defined group of close relatives, and a dependency claim for those who relied on the person financially. The rules are specific and they are different from a claim brought by an injured person during their lifetime, so it is worth asking rather than assuming. An inquest may also be running alongside, and that is a different process again.
Find out where you stand
Tell us what happened and how you have been since. We will explain which route applies to you, what it would involve, and whether it is worth pursuing. If it is not, we will say so.
- Free, confidential and without obligation
- No Win No Fee available
- SRA-regulated solicitors
Check if you can make a claim
Takes less than 60 seconds
Other claims we handle
Find out whether it is worth investigating
Most people who ring about treatment that went wrong are not chasing money. They want someone to look at the records and tell them whether what happened to them was avoidable. That is a reasonable thing to want to know, and it is a question we can usually answer fairly quickly. The conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
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