$200,000 in damages flagged after needle broke in woman's spine before C-section

A woman is likely to be awarded almost $200,000 in damages after a needle broke in her spine before a caesarean at Canberra Hospital.

In February 2020, the career public servant went to the hospital for the procedure and had to be given a spinal anaesthetic.

Doctors tried to insert a needle for the anaesthetic four times before the needle broke, leaving part of it inside her body, which had to be surgically removed.

Her daughter was successfully delivered via a C-section after the incident.

Afterwards, the woman began to sue the ACT Government, alleging it was vicariously responsible for the negligent conduct of the doctors.

While originally failing in the ACT Supreme Court, she took this initial rejection to the Court of Appeal, which overturned the finding that negligence had not been established and concluded that it had.

The appeals court also found she was suffering from lower limb radiculopathy, meaning a pinched nerve, due to the incident and sent the proceedings back to the Supreme Court for an assessment of monetary damages.

In May 2020, the woman told her GP she had reached breaking point and was having difficulty dealing with pain in her back and leg.

She said she has had a constant ache in her lower back since then.

She added that household chores aggravated her pain, she has fluctuating pins and needles in her leg, difficulty balancing and began limping after the incident.

She said she felt like “a little old lady”.

Her husband told the court, “she’s definitely not the person I married” as she was now “too scared to move certain ways because she’s worried about hurting herself”.

A consultant psychiatrist said the woman had been left with a fear of injections from the incident, and she had symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder.

While the Court of Appeal found her pain and symptoms in her leg were the result of radiculopathy, the Supreme Court’s Justice David Mossop said the prognosis for the condition was not established by the evidence, so he did not accept her submission that she had a “poor prognosis”.

When assessing for damages earlier this month, Justice Mossop said the woman, who now lives in rural NSW, “suffered what she found to be a terrifying incident”.

He said due to her injuries and conditions, “the pleasure of her rural life has been affected and her work has been made more difficult”.

However, he also said there was no current evidence of her condition that would provide a reliable basis for the assessment of her condition in the future.

“Given the nature of back injuries which have some nerve involvement (the radiculopathy referred to by the Court of Appeal), it is likely that she will continue to suffer some discomfort in the future, but the likely extent and duration cannot be assessed,” he said.

He said he would award the woman about $196,000, comprising general damages, domestic assistance and out-of-pocket expenses.

The judge then adjourned to 12 May for the making of final orders and determination of any question of costs.