Appendix patient wins £130k settlement from Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital trust

A hospital patient has won a £130,000 settlement after a failed appendix operation.

The man has developed lifelong bowel issues since the botched 2018 surgery at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

The patient said the settlement was a relief, but he still felt angry about what had happened to him.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) has apologised and says a review had been carried out to find out what went wrong after failings in his care.

During the appendix operation, a surgeon mistakenly removed a piece of fatty tissue instead of the patient's appendix damaging blood vessels going to his small bowel.

The patient, who wishes to remain anonymous, told BBC Radio Shropshire "The psychological impact was enormous. I was 24 when I went in, and it was traumatic."

The man, now 29, added that he now has a lifelong bowel condition, severe bile acid malabsorption, which requires daily medication. He also suffers with diarrhoea and pain.

While the hospital trust admitted that medics failed to remove the appendix and damaged blood vessels it did not accept that the other bowel issues were caused by those failings.

SaTH Medical Director Dr John Jones said: "We acknowledge agreement of the settlement and would like to offer our sincere apologies for the failings in his care.

"A review into this case has been carried out to learn lessons as we are committed to improving the quality of care that we provide."

The NHS spent almost £2.7bn on settlement pay outs in 2022-23, a rise of 9.5% on the year.