'It's like being in prison': Mum's life 'ruined' by an operation she didn't need to have

07.03.2022 - 00:39 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk

A mum has been left with a lifetime of chronic pain following a spine operation she didn't need to have.

Donna Johnstone, 48, said at times she felt like driving her car off a cliff after struggling to cope with the severity of the pain.

She is no longer able to work for her family's business, rarely leaves the house, and even missed her eldest daughter's university graduation.

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The mum-of-two from Ashton-in-Makerfield was first referred to the Walton Centre in Liverpool after presenting at her GP with 'niggling' arm and neck pain in 2013.

A surgeon at the NHS hospital, which specialises in the management of neurological conditions, advised she should have surgery to remove a spinal cord disc in her neck after scans.

But since the operation, she has been left with daily excruciating pain which has prevented her living a normal life, and can only be eased with a strong cocktail of medication.

Following a trial at Manchester Civil Court, a judge ruled that "no reasonable body of neurosurgeons would have offered surgery" at the stage the surgeon at the Walton Centre did.

Judge Claire Evens said if Ms Johnstone had been 'appropriately advised,' she would not have progressed to surgery.

She also agreed with two neurological experts that the mum's pain has been "exacerbated" by the surgery and subsequent surgeries since 2013.

The Walton Centre has since been ordered to pay Donna a six-figure compensation settlement following the trial last May.

They have also issued a formal apology to the mum-of-two, admitting they 'let her down.'

Donna believes she developed the original pain following years of manufacturing electrical cables in the family business,