‘It was like a bread knife cutting through my insides,’ says mum, 46, after ‘botched’ op wound burst open
A MUM felt like a “bread knife was cutting through her insides” after an operation to remove an ovarian cyst.
Karena McAlister’s wound burst open following the routine procedure, leaving her with lifelong chronic pain.
“Every moment felt like torture,” she said.
Karena underwent surgery at Bath’s Royal United Hospital in February 2017 aged 46.
All seemingly went to plan, but her incision allegedly wasn’t closed properly and the stitches holding it together unravelled.
Karena, from Wiltshire, was eventually deemed fit to be discharged three days later.
But when her partner of 12 years, Gary Harvey, arrived to collect her, he noticed she was covered in blood.
It reportedly took four hours for a nurse to assess Karena’s injury, and another two for the dressing to be changed.
She was finally allowed to go home at 9.30pm, but was rushed to A&E the following morning after continuous vomiting and writhing in worsening pain.
The mum-of-one, now 56, said: “When I was discharged initially, the pain every time I moved was like a bread knife cutting through my lower left-hand side.
“It was as if my insides were being ripped apart.
“Remembering my son and my partner watching me in pain and feeling so helpless is something that will haunt me forever.”
Karena was diagnosed with midline wound dehiscence – where a wound reopens in the days after surgery.
She underwent an emergency operation to re-stitch it, which caused adhesions and left her with lifelong chronic pain.
An MRI scan three months later revealed scar tissue in her abdomen due to multiple operations.
She was referred to a chronic pain clinic for ongoing pain management and has been struggling through daily life ever since.
“It’s been a very long journey and I’m still not fully accepting of the way my life has changed and the years the surgery took away from me,” Karena said.
“I was very active beforehand – I used to go wakeboarding, cycling, swimming and running – but it all stopped overnight.
“Even simple things like hanging the washing out, changing the bedding and vacuuming – I can’t do them anymore due to the pain.
“We’ve had to make changes to our home and get a blow-up tent for when we go camping.
“While these things are now the norm, they took a lot of adjusting to.”
It was as if my insides were being ripped apart
Karena McAlister
An investigation was launched into the alleged failings at the hospital and Karena took legal action against Royal United Bath NHS Foundation Trust to get an apology.
It admitted incorrectly discharging her on February 9, 2017, but denied not stitching her up properly.
Through Lime Solicitors, Karena has now settled her medical negligence claim against the trust.
She said: “The day after my second surgery, I was told there’d be an investigation.
“I didn’t comprehend it at the time as I was just grateful the cyst had been removed.
“But when I saw the outcome, all I wanted was an apology – not because the surgery had gone wrong, but because they had lied through an investigation I hadn’t asked for.
“They said the bleeding I suffered was ‘light’ but, by sheer coincidence, I had photos that showed otherwise.
“Without those images, I wouldn’t be in the position I am in today.
“Suing the NHS isn’t something I am comfortable with and it’s not something I am proud of.
“But I needed an apology and acknowledgement of what my family and I had gone through, and the way my life has changed forever.”
‘Lifelong agony’
Gary added: “The ward let Karena down; the care she received was dreadful.
“They should never have discharged her so late at night when she was still bleeding and in pain.
“I’ll always blame myself for agreeing to take her home.
“She was in agony and it was obvious the stitching had come undone – you only needed to look at the wound.
“The NHS saved my son’s life shortly after he was born so criticising it is extremely difficult. However, the investigation post-operation was incorrect.
“If the hospital had just apologised at the time, that truly would have been sufficient.
“But they couldn’t acknowledge that the care was suboptimal and verging on neglect.
“As a result, Karena will have to suffer for the rest of her life.”
A consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist assessed the standard of surgery, relying on medical record documents.
These suggested that the post-procedure knot was tied insufficiently, which likely allowed it to unravel – though this is disputed.
The trust denied liability, suggesting it “snapped”, but there was no evidence to support this either way.
A settlement was achieved during a mediation in April 2023, a few weeks before the scheduled trial was due to begin.
The trust also wrote a letter of apology to Karena, who allegedly should have fully recovered within six to 10 weeks.
Viral Dagly, medical negligence associate at Lime Solicitors, said: “Our case found that the dehiscence was caused by substandard knot tying.
“Had the wound been sutured correctly, it would not have come undone, and Ms McAlister would not have suffered from such heavy bleeding and increased pain and vomiting.
“She would have made a full recovery within six to ten weeks.
“However, the negligence contributed to the development of significant adhesions, which is the cause of her lifelong and chronic abdominal pains.”
An RUH spokesperson said: “We are very sorry that the care that Ms McAlister received fell below the high standards we set ourselves.
“We take our responsibilities to the people we care for very seriously.
“We have investigated what went wrong and have taken steps to reduce the chance of this unfortunate complication of surgery occurring again.”
Ovarian cysts are very common and many women live with them without any trouble, according to the NHS.
Those with symptoms affect around one in 25 women at some point in their life.
Most ovarian cysts can be removed via laparoscopy – a type of keyhole surgery where small cuts are made in the stomach and gas is blown into the pelvis.
Some require a laparotomy – where a single, larger cut is made.
Medical negligence claims against the NHS
PAYMENTS from the NHS to families of patients who died due to botched care have more than doubled in seven years.
A record 1,101 successful fatality claims against the NHS were settled for £93,349,775 in the 12 months to April.
It is a 107 per cent increase from 738 settlements worth £45.1m in 2015/16.
But the true cost to the taxpayer was even higher as the NHS paid £14.4m of legal fees and £58.9m for claimant’s lawyer costs, meaning the total spent on the payouts was £166.6million.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust ranked top of the pile for care claim flops – stumping up £10.5m of damages in a year for 131 deaths.
Other trusts to hit three figures included Mid and South Essex, University Hospitals Birmingham and United Lincolnshire Hospitals, which all paid out at least £9.5m each.
NHS Resolution statistics obtained by The Sun on Sunday show a string of vital errors that led to the untimely deaths.
They include 21 fatalities caused by a delay in performing operations, 18 failures to correctly interpret x-rays and 11 cases where bungling docs forgot to get informed consent before surgical procedures.
A further 23 deaths were linked to failures to follow up on abnormal test results while 28 were down to medication errors.
And 37 payouts worth an average of £97,700 were handed to the families of people who died after being given the wrong treatment.
Another 37 were linked to GPs and ambulance staff failing to refer patients to specialists soon enough for life-saving treatment, while 34 fatalities were caused by medics discharging patients from hospital beds too early.
The highest single payout was between £1m and £1.5m while the average handed to a bereaved family was £84,786.