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£803,000 pay-out for nurse who suffered work-related back injury
A nurse who suffered a back injury at work almost a decade ago has won a £803,000 pay-out after a marathon legal battle against his former employer.
Karl Douglas first injured his back in 1991 while using an orthodox lift, which according to his lawyers had been condemned as unsafe since at least 1981. The following year he was injured again while he and another nurse were lifting a patient onto a pressure-relieving mattress.
The injury, which left him in severe pain, was not diagnosed properly for more than four years, when his parents remortgaged their home to pay for a private consultation. He then underwent a series of hospital admissions and treatment including two spinal fusions.
His former employer Bexley and Greenwich Health Authority denied any undue delay in settling Douglas's claim, believing seven and a half years to be a reasonable waiting period.
