Woman left with lifetime of severe pain after spinal surgery she didn’t need

'The pain just degrades you and strips you of your dignity.'

A woman has been left in chronic pain and unable to work following spinal surgery she later found out she didn’t need.

Donna Johnstone, 48, said she felt like driving her car off a cliff at times after struggling to cope with the severity of the pain.

The mum-of-two is no longer able to work for her family’s business, rarely leaves the house, and even missed her eldest daughter’s university graduation.

Donna, from Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester, was first referred to The Walton Centre in Liverpool after going to her GP with ‘niggling’ arm and neck pain in 2013.

A surgeon at the NHS hospital, which specialises in the management of neurological conditions, advised Donna she should have surgery to remove a spinal cord disc in her neck after scans.

The operation went as planned but three weeks later Donna developed a ‘ridiculous’ pain in her neck.

Since then the pain has not subsided, Donna has been left relying on a strong cocktail of painkillers and cannot live a normal life.

Following a trial at Manchester Civil Court, a judge ruled that ‘no reasonable body of neurosurgeons would have offered surgery’ at the stage the surgeon at The Walton Centre did.

Judge Claire Evans said if Donna had been ‘appropriately advised,’ she would not have gone ahead with the surgery.

She also agreed with two neurological experts that the mum’s pain has been ‘exacerbated’ by the operation and subsequent surgeries since 2013.

The Walton Centre has since been ordered to pay Donna a six-figure compensation settlement following the trial last May.

It has also issued a formal apology to the mum-of-two, admitting it ‘let her down’.

Donna said the compensation payment was ‘irrelevant’ to her and will be used to help manage the chronic pain she faces on a daily basis.

She said she was led to believe the operation was her only treatment option but had led her to lose her ‘whole identity as a busy working mum’.

‘My family have also lost the wife and mother I used to be and now it is they who have to care for me,’ she said.

‘It’s like being trapped in a prison with no prospect of ever being released.’

Donna said she thinks she developed the original pain following years of manufacturing electrical cables in the family business, Roga Cables.

She had been working full-time up until the day of the operation on August 27 2013, but since the surgery has been unable to return to work.

When she initially went to her GP she was advised to do some physiotherapy, before her physio recommended she see a neurosurgeon.

An MRI scan revealed a problem with a spinal cord disc in her neck, and Donna was placed under the care of a surgeon at The Walton Centre, who recommended surgery.

Donna recalled she had been ‘very reluctant about surgery’ because her brother had been left paralysed after having an operation.

‘The thought of having surgery in my neck was terrifying. I was very concerned,’ she said.

The operation went ahead but when Donna developed pain again around three weeks later she returned to The Walton Centre, where she claims she was told the pain needed to settle.

‘It got to a point where I couldn’t bear the pain I was in,’ she said.

‘They thought I might have developed an infection so I was given months of antibiotics. It wasn’t a nice time. I was very poorly and lost a lot of weight.

‘I didn’t improve and the pain was still getting worse.

‘I was taking a ridiculous amount of pain medication. I just got to a point where I thought: what is the point in all of this?’

Donna said she was discharged from The Walton Centre and referred to a private doctor, who informed her she needed to undergo another operation.

Since the original surgery in 2013, Donna has had to have two more operations in 2016 and 2019.

During the course of the trial, two neurological experts agreed Donna will most likely suffer from daily pain for the rest of her life.

‘It just degrades you and strips you of your dignity,’ Donna said.

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust said it had nothing further to add, but did confirm the surgeon in question was still working at the hospital.

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