Five-figure settlement for family of woman who died from complications after missed spinal fracture diagnosis

In December 2016, the woman, who we will call Josephine, was taken to hospital by ambulance with severe back pain, having suffered a fall a few days earlier.  

At the time, Josephine lived at home with her husband and, before her fall, was independent with her day-to-day life. 

The doctor who saw her in A&E did not acknowledge Josephine’s back pain and instead considered that she was suffering with a urinary tract infection (UTI), so he did not arrange an x-ray. Josephine was discharged and seen multiple times at home by carers over the next week, but she continued to struggle with walking and suffered with incontinence, pain and constipation.

A week after she had been discharged home, Josephine’s condition had deteriorated further, and she was taken back to hospital. She had an x-ray, and her spinal fracture was identified, but by that time the fracture had compressed her spinal cord and paralysed her legs. She eventually underwent a procedure to inject cement into the spine to stabilise it.

Josephine did not regain feeling in her legs and remained bedbound for the rest of her life. She was discharged into a nursing home in March 2017.

After her discharge, Josephine continued to suffer severe back pain, and her quality of life deteriorated rapidly. She suffered pressure sores, UTIs and episodes of confusion, and in December 2017 was diagnosed with respiratory failure secondary to pulmonary embolism – a blood clot in the lungs which can be caused by immobility. She died on 3 February 2018.

Brendan Hope, a clinical negligence partner at Leigh Day, represented Josephine’s family. He obtained reports from independent medical experts, who concluded that Josephine’s spine should have been x-rayed on her first hospital visit, and had that been done, the spinal fracture would have been identified and treated before it compressed her spinal cord.

The experts also concluded that, had the fracture been diagnosed earlier, Josephine would not have suffered the pain and loss of mobility that she did and would not have spent her last year of life bedbound in a nursing home, which caused the complications that led to her death in February 2018.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust admitted they should have x-rayed Josephine’s spine when she first attended hospital and that the x-ray would have diagnosed the fracture but denied that she would have had treatment to prevent her loss of mobility and the complications which led to her death.

Whilst liability was denied, the claim against the trust was settled in October 2025 and Josephine’s family agreed a £60,000 settlement.

Brendan Hope said:

“After a long-running legal case in which the trust admitted that the treatment Josephine received was negligent, I am so pleased that a settlement has now been reached. In the space of a couple of weeks in 2016-17, Josephine went from someone who lived a normal life at home with her husband, to being unable to move her legs and bedbound for the rest of her life.

“I know that a financial settlement was not Josephine’s family’s motivation for bringing this case and no sum of money can undo the damage that has been caused, but I hope that it brings them a sense of closure, having achieved the justice for Josephine which they pursued tirelessly throughout this case."

Josephine’s son said:

“We are so glad that, after such a long road to get to this point, the legal case has now concluded and that this included recognition from the trust that there were errors in our mum’s treatment. We would like to thank Brendan and his team for all of his hard work in our mum’s case and for achieving a positive outcome after such a difficult time for our family.”