A client who was left with Chronic Pain Disorder after suffering a workplace accident has received more than £100,000 in compensation
We were contacted by a professional masseuse and beauty therapist. As part of her employment she had been attending a training course during which the attendees practiced new techniques on each other.
However, when she climbed onto a massage table to take her turn being “guinea pig”, the table collapsed and her face was slammed into the floor.
She was incredibly shocked and in a lot of pain and was taken to hospital. Mercifully, no bones had been broken and so she expected that she would soon be back to normal despite this horrible experience
Unfortunately, she continued to suffer ongoing pain in her face and jaw.
She therefore contacted our team of specialist personal injury lawyers. We agreed to help her claim compensation on a No Win No Fee basis.
We submitted the claim to her employers stating that they had failed to provide safe equipment for her mandatory training. Their insurance company accepted that they had failed in their duty of care and admitted legal liability.
This was great news as it meant all that needed to be considered was how much compensation our client was entitled to receive. However, this was far from straightforward.
The pain in her face and jaw was not resolving and was in fact getting worse. It was radiating into her neck, shoulder and arm. It was causing her headaches and difficulty eating.
The doctors treating her were somewhat stumped to explain why she was suffering such unpleasant and debilitating symptoms in the absence of fractures. They tried various treatments, including injections in her jaw and surgery to wash out the joint, but there was no resolution to her pain.
In the meantime, the insurance company were keen to settle the claim and made an offer of around £6,000. They argued that in the absence of a fracture or any other explanation linking the ongoing pain to the accident, they were only responsible to compensate our client for a limited period of pain.
We did not accept that argument. Given the enormous impact the pain was having on her life (including reduced work hours and needing help around the house and to care for her pets) we advised that the offer be rejected.
We arranged for our client to be examined by a consultant in Pain Management who confirmed that she was suffering from Chronic Pain Syndrome. The chronic pain she was feeling was completely genuine and caused by the accident, even though there was no physical explanation for it.
Our client was greatly relieved to finally have a diagnosis. Not only that, but the Pain Management expert was optimistic that with a treatment regime the pain could be greatly reduced.
With the assistance of this report, we were able to recover compensation in excess of £100,000.
