A 20-year-old man has been awarded compensation after suffering a brain injury and heart attack when he went in to have his tonsils removed. Corey Wilkinson, who was 19 at the time, went to the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimbsy to have his tonsils removed in November 2021.
He then went to Leeds to be with his girlfriend and recover from the surgery. However, that evening, Corey was rushed to hospital due to bleeding following his operation.
He later suffered a cardiac arrest and, as doctors worked to fit a breathing tube, Corey was starved of oxygen twice as his airways became blocked due to the volume of blood. Corey also had an emergency tracheostomy, cutting a hole in his neck to insert a breathing tube, but the incident left Corey starved of oxygen for around 15 minutes.
Doctors decided to remove the tube the next day, but complications meant Corey struggled to breathe and was starved of oxygen for a further four minutes. He suffered a cardiac arrest and a hypoxic and ischaemic brain injury as a result of the incident, GrimsbyLive writes.
Following this, he was put on life support for two weeks and fitted with a feeding tube, with doctors unsure if he would survive. He was eventually discharged and returned home in January last year, but came back a different person.
Sadly, Corey was unable to walk or talk as well as unable to swallow. Now aged 20, he has been working hard to get back to his former self and is determined to not let what happened to him stop him from living his life.
"We’d been at hospital with him and were told there had been substantial bleeding, but we were not in any kind of panic as my sister had her tonsils removed some years ago and she also suffered bleeding and needed surgery to stop it. It was all straightforward for her though," said Corey’s mum, Nichola.
"We left him as we were told he’d need to stay in overnight, but then just as we arrived home in the early hours of the morning we got a call telling us we needed to come back and that it was serious. We were told that it was so bad he may not survive, and if he did he may never be the same boy again because he would likely have suffered brain damage. It was heartbreaking.
"When he did eventually come home from hospital we had a lot of tears and frustrations as he wanted to be the person he was before, and he was upset at losing his independence and needing our support. It has been a long road back to where he is now."
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She added: "He was determined to do the best he could though, and as soon as he could he was using our walking machine at home and the weights to get himself physically better. For a while he needed to use the wheelchair, then a walking frame, but as soon as he was able to he was back to the gym and he has gone every day without fail.
"His confidence was shattered by what happened. Initially, he did speak slowly and was slurred, but again, over time, that has improved, although I know he still feels self-conscious about it, as he does the scar on his neck from the emergency surgery.
"For a long time, he’d want me to go with him to appointments to speak for him. It has been such a difficult thing for him to deal with but we are so proud of him." Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was found to be at fault for the oxygen starvation and admitted "a number of breaches of duty".
Corey was awarded an interim £25,000, as a result, to help fund his rehabilitation from the trust and hopes to return to being a personal trainer as he had planned before the injury. Solicitor Matthew Gascoyne, of Hudgell Solicitors, who managed Corey's case, said: "We are very grateful to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for making early admissions of breach of duty in this case and for agreeing to this interim payment to pay for rehabilitation support which will hugely help Corey on his continuing recovery.
"We had outlined our concerns over the treatment Corey received, in particular decisions to carry out the initial surgery with only one anaesthetist present, a failure to plan to sufficiently clear his airways before surgery, and then to end sedation and remove his breathing tube the following morning before the day-shift medical staff arrived, and before an Intensive Care Consultant would have been expected on the unit.
"Corey is an inspirational young man who was making a positive life for himself before this event and has been determined to pick his life back up since and make the best possible recovery. His legal claim will continue as we will seek to ensure he continues to have access to a team of specialists who can help him return to his training and then employment, and enjoy the best quality of life and independence, whilst of course seeking significant damages for the impact of what happened to him."
