She suffers from an invisible disability due to a medical error at Rouen University Hospital

Le CHU de Rouen a commis a medical error. Before the administrative court, this Thursday, June 20, 2024, in Rouen, Géraldine*, represented by her lawyer, requests compensation following shortcomings and complications encountered during a surgical intervention. She is now suffering from handicap invisible.

It all started during a sports session in April 2018. Géraldine, then aged 36, felt a pain at the level of the right hip. After various medical examinations, he was diagnosed with “a bone lesion in the left iliac wing”, specifies the Rapporteur of the Republic. An orthopedic surgeon prescribes a bone biopsy. An intervention which consists of taking small bone fragments to determine the nature of the lesion.

An operation “generally not very painful”

This biopsy was carried out in September 2018 at the Rouen University Hospital. During the surgical procedure, although performed under local anesthesia, Géraldine feels severe pain in the left buttock.

After the operation, she complained of persistent pain in her buttock, which then spread to her left leg. She must help herself a cane for walking during six months.

Funny consequence when we read in an information note from the Henri-Becquerel center in Rouen that the biopsy is “generally not very painful”. However, it is possible to feel some pain or tenderness after the procedure, but it should subside quickly. The note also specifies that “paracetamol-type analgesics are generally sufficient to calm this pain”.

A lesion ultimately… benign

Following the first biopsy, the CHU doctor considers that a surgical operation is necessary: ​​“He suggests curettage and additional cement” to treat the initial pain of which she complained, explains the Republic’s rapporteur. But, hesitant, Géraldine consulted an orthopedic surgeon from Lille University Hospital in April 2019.

He also performs a biopsy on the suffering patient to assess the severity of the original injury and concludes that a lesion… benign. Surgery does not appear necessary.

Géraldine then calls on an expert to disentangle fact from fiction. And his report is unequivocal: the Rouen University Hospital made a diagnosis error, in addition to invalidating its patient. It appears in the expert’s report that the first biopsy was poorly performed: “The trajectory (with the needle used during this intervention, Editor’s note) practiced by the Rouen University Hospital maximized the chances of hitting a nerve, unlike that which was practiced at the Lille University Hospital” points out the report in particular. Its conclusions are not contested by the Rouen University Hospital.

“She suffers from an invisible handicap”

Now aged 42, Géraldine lives daily with chronic pain. Her lawyer, Maître Goddefroy-Gancel, wishes to point out that for 6 years, her client has no longer been able to “practice running regularly because of the pain.” A leisure activity in which she often indulged. “All her life, she will have to live with chronic neuropathic pain,” adds her advice. She suffers from an invisible disability. »

The debates in the administrative court do not revolve around the responsibility of the hospital center, but rather the compensation requested by the plaintiff. To know, a total of 85,000 euros. If the hospital recognizes an error by its doctor, it asks that the compensation be reduced “to fairer proportions”.

The court plans to sentence the CHU to compensation of 32,000 euros for the complainant, and points to the lack of information on the risks of the surgical intervention and the lack of management of the patient’s pain after this intervention. The decision was deliberated on Thursday June 20, 2024.

*The first name has been changed.

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