We are somewhat of an expert firm of injury lawyers when it comes to breast surgery. We represent a large proportion of the women claiming compensation for the faulty and dangerous PIP breast implants; a scandal which came to light in late 2011. So here is a little advice about the prospect of making a claim when breast surgery has gone wrong.
First things first, cosmetic compensation claims are not always easy to win. A lot can go wrong with any surgery, particularly surgery as invasive as breast augmentation. When it comes to implants, a foreign body is being put in to your body, and there are always risks associated with this.
So if something has gone wrong, we need to identify the cause and whether the problem has been caused as a result of negligence or an inherent risk.
For example, an infection is a very common inherent risk of most procedures like this. If you suffer from an infection, it can be difficult to claim because it is so common. Nothing much can be done to stop a general infection. So we need to clarify that the problem has been caused as a result of a mistake.
Before I move on to discussing negligence, there is a case to be made if you are not made clearly aware of a potential inherent risk. If you are not told that there is a chance something in particular can go wrong, and it happens, there is an argument to say that there is a failure to provide adequate warning. If a potential risk may have changed your mind about having the surgery, and you were not warned about the risk, there could be a claim.
To give you an example – if one of the PIP breast implant victims was told that there implant contains industrial grade silicon and has a higher rate of rupture when compared to other implants, I can pretty much guarantee that the majority of women wouldn’t have had the operation done! And I have mentioned this to our clients in general conversation!
So what about negligence when it comes to mistakes – can you make a claim if the surgeon makes a mistake? The answer is yes, normally. If something goes wrong because a mistake has been made, we can usually make a claim for you.
When it comes to the PIP compensation claims, we are using the power of the Supply of Goods and Services Act to fight the claims. An implant is essentially a product that you are provided with. Under this important piece of legalisation:
- ) The service will be provided with reasonable care and skill (section 13)
- ) The goods will be of satisfactory quality (section 4.2)
- ) The goods will be fit for purpose (section 4)
If the implant is not of a satisfactory quality or is not fit for purpose, the provider of the implant may be liable. Normally this is the clinic, as it’s a case of contract law. Whoever has the contract with the victim for supplying the implants is responsible. We have had a lot of clinics we are pursuing for PIP claims blaming the surgeons on the basis that they chose the implants. But that isn’t necessarily the way that contact law works. If we are claiming under Supply of Goods and Services Act, those involved in the contract are a party to the claim.
So if you have suffered as a result of breast surgery one wrong, give us a call on 0800 634 75 75 and we will assess if we can help you out with a claim or not.
