Six-figure payout to cancer op mother

Christine Statham was told she needed an operation to remove her bladder by Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust after being offered no alternative treatment.

Mrs Statham, of Millfields Avenue, Bloxwich, later found she could have received radiotherapy rather than having surgery that also saw her reproductive organs removed.

The ruling after a trial at Birmingham County Court comes a month after £3.2 million was awarded to meningitis victim Mark Thomas, of Blakenall, who was left brain damaged after Walsall Manor Hospital failed to diagnose his illness.

Mother-of-three Mrs Statham was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2006 and had a tumour removed.

She was then told by staff at Manor Hospital that she needed to have her bladder removed. After a nine-hour operation at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton she was told there was no cancer in the removed organs.

The former nursing assistant has now retired from her position at the learning disabilities unit in Wightwick Close, Bloxwich.

Mrs Statham said she had not been seen by a consultant about the surgery. She said: "I have lost all faith in Manor Hospital. I was never told radiotherapy was an option and I feel like I was mutilated for no reason."

His Honour Judge Oliver Jones QC said: "The claimant has established that her pain, suffering and loss of amenity, as well as her pecuniary losses, were caused by the negligence of the defendant."

Walsall Hospital NHS Trust chief executive Sue James said: "The trust notes the decision of the court that Mrs Statham was not appropriately advised of the treatment options and that had she been so, she would have opted for radical radiotherapy, rather than surgery."