Amputee calls for NHS apology over failings

Karen Webb said an apology would have helped her recovery

A woman who had part of her leg amputated following hospital failings in Sussex has said she is still waiting for an apology – nine years on.

Karen Webb, from Seaford, said she was left with severe mobility issues after staff at Brighton's Royal Sussex County Hospital and Eastbourne District General Hospital failed to treat an infected ulcer between 2014 and 2015.

"It would be so important to me to hear them acknowledge what they did, to meet me and just say we are sorry," she said.

The NHS trusts representing the hospitals, which financially compensated Ms Webb, said they were "always willing" to meet with patients "unhappy with their care".

'I try to stay positive'

Ms Webb now lives with a prosthetic leg and relies on an electric wheelchair.

The 54-year-old said she has “good and bad days” as life can be "really difficult".

“I try to stay positive as much as I can, but sometimes it can be the little things, such as if I have a fall, that can really set me back,” she said.

During a series of appointments, Ms Webb said she was repeatedly told by hospital staff her foot was not infected.

Her ulcer became so bad it could no longer be treated with antibiotics and she was told her foot and lower right leg would need to be amputated in 2015.

Ms Webb said the NHS needed to realise the impact an apology would have

Ms Webb said she faced “excruciating” pain as her wound became so infected it cracked her heel bone and turned her skin black.

Webb's financial settlement was reached with East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust - which no longer exists.

It became the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust after a merger with Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 2021.