Oluma* was diagnosed with hydrocephalus when she was 20 and had a shunt inserted. She had no problems until she was 35 and started getting severe headaches which woke her up at night. In 2016, she had monitoring in hospital of her intracranial pressure and the readings showed levels above the limit of her shunt valve. The neurosurgeon felt that her shunt was working fine and she was referred to a neurologist for headache treatment.
The headaches got worse and worse and Oluma was only getting about two hours sleep a night. It was affecting her work, which involved a lot of driving and eventually, in 2017, she felt she had no choice but to leave her job because she felt unsafe on the road.
Eventually she got a second opinion from a neurosurgeon at a different hospital who told her that her shunt was not working properly. She had surgery to revise her shunt in 2019, 3 years after the previous pressure monitoring. After surgery, her headaches resolved.
Oluma came to us to investigate her claim. Our experts considered that the pressure monitoring in 2016 showed raised pressure and that shunt dysfunction should have been diagnosed. We were able to secure a settlement for her loss of earnings for the two years since she resigned and for the pain she had suffered since 2016. With her compensation, Oluma was also able to access a vocational rehabilitation course to help her understand her transferable skills for employment, prepare her CV and to obtain work in a new field that does not involve driving.
*Name and images have been changed on the request of the individuals.