C's Story

A solicitor on the Limb Loss Legal Panel acted for the Claimant in a personal injury claim relating to accident at work.
C was working for the Defendant as a Sailing Instructor and Yacht Skipper aboard one of its vessels, when the generator on board exploded causing him to sustain multiple injuries to his legs.  The Claimant brought an action against the Defendant alleging that it was negligent in failing to look after the health and safety of its employees by adequately maintaining the vessel's generator.  The Defendants admitted liability for what happened.

Following the explosion, the claimant became trapped under the generator and a below knee amputation was performed on his left leg to remove him from the vessel. The claimant remained conscious throughout the accident and on arrival at hospital his left leg became infected and an above knee amputation was carried out.

Following discharge from hospital, the Claimant was initially confined to a wheelchair and was reliant on care and assistance from friends and family. He then moved into a bungalow that was more suited to his needs.

The Claimant was provided with prosthetic limbs but found them to be uncomfortable and poorly fitted. He was then fitted with two day-to-day activity prostheses, one sports prosthesis and one water activity prosthesis. This enabled C to continue his pre-accident hobby of sailing, although extensive adaptations were needed to his own yacht.

The Claimant received a damages award of £1,250,000.  This included sums to compensate for items such as the future cost of prostheses, adaptations to his accommodation and adaptations to his yacht so that he could continue sailing.