Derby woman's 'years of pain after operation errors'

Colleagues at Royal Derby Hospital raised concerns about the consultant

A woman has said metal staples were left inside her in a botched operation which has resulted in two years of "constant pain".

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she was operated on by Daniel Hay, a former Royal Derby Hospital consultant, in February 2018.

Mr Hay is under investigation after eight women treated by him were found to have been "unnecessarily harmed".

Hundreds of women have now been told their care is being reviewed.

The 52-year-old woman from Derby told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she is pursuing a medical negligence claim.

'Catalogue of errors'

She said she had been suffering with a condition, called menorrhagia, which made her periods abnormally heavy.

She said Mr Hay failed to correctly close a blood vessel while removing her uterus, fallopian tube and ovaries.

Weeks after the initial operation, she went to her GP complaining of pain and sickness and was told she still had metal staples inside her, which should have been removed several weeks before.

It is alleged the errors in her treatment led to further complications and several operations, leaving her with severe chronic pain ever since.

She said: "Overnight, I went from being an incredibly fit person to needing my partner to get me out of bed, wash me and put me back in bed, for four weeks."

Estelle Cockayne at Thompsons Solicitors, who is representing the woman, said: "An unacceptable catalogue of errors led to serious physical and emotional trauma to our client, which she is yet to recover from."

Thompsons Solicitors encouraged others to come forwards

Mr Hay confirmed he is under a review, being conducted by the University Hospital of Derby and Burton NHS Trust and NHS England, in an interview with The Times.

Neither organisation, nor the General Medical Council, has yet confirmed he is the subject of their investigation.

He also said that he had stopped work and subsequently retired due to mental health issues.

An initial review of 57 cases involving Mr Hay, in April, identified eight lapses of care resulting in "unnecessary harm", for which he and the trust apologised.

This prompted a larger investigation and as part of that a total of 272 women have now been contacted.

When contacted, Mr Hay referred media inquiries to the hospital, which did not respond to these latest allegations.

It previously said it would look into concerns raised by individual patients if they shared their details.