Amputation Injury and Limb Loss Claims

What are the effects of amputation?

There are many effects of an amputation, and if you have an amputation injury claim, we work hard to help you deal with all the effects of an amputation on your life.

We prioritise rehabilitation for our clients from the very outset and, wherever possible, select the best rehabilitation providers to work with you to identify what treatment you require. We will appoint a case manager, who will be a health professional with expertise in managing amputation injury, to carry out an Immediate Needs Assessment.

Typical types of treatment include:

• Physical therapies - work on you continuing to use the rest of your limbs and general fitness, as well as helping to prepare a stump for the fitting of an artificial limb, known as a prosthesis.
• Occupational therapy – focuses on ensuring you can meet certain daily living skills and regain as much independence as possible by adapting to your home environment. Treatment often involves learning coping strategies to make daily living easier, like showering, preparing food, getting dressed, and recommending aids and appliances that may help you.
• Prosthetist – will design and then make an artificial limb best suited for your needs, taking into account the importance of its function and how it looks. They will also help advise you on how to use and maintain the limb. The cost of obtaining a prosthesis is often included as part of your claim in addition to the replacement costs for the rest of your life.
• Psychological therapies – it is very easy to suffer from low mood and other signs of depression following an amputation injury, so this is an essential support for the amputee and family. It can help prevent or cope with feelings of low mood and depression, which, if left untreated, could in themselves be disabling and reduce the effect of your physical rehabilitation.
• Adapting or buying a home more suited to your needs
• Adapting or buying a more suitable vehicle
• Employment rehabilitation
• Recreational therapy.

After this assessment, your case manager will coordinate your rehabilitation package and work with you and other professionals to identify your required treatment. If your assessment makes recommendations, we will advise you on how we can help you access and fund them to get the support and care you need. Our specialist amputation injury case managers will look after your interests to help get you all the support you need as soon as possible. We focus on early rehabilitation and interim payments wherever possible.

Prostheses

After an amputation, you will need a prosthesis. Prosthetics vary widely depending on their intended purpose. Some are designed to be functional, others for cosmetic purposes, while others are specially adapted to certain sports.

On the NHS, the prosthetics are usually provided around 6 – 8 weeks after your surgery to allow time for your surgical stump to heal. The stump needs to fit comfortably with the prosthesis. The NHS provision is usually quite basic. It will often focus on safety rather than function. There are other drawbacks to the NHS service, such as the lack of clinical time with a patient and the long time between appointments. The lack of NHS funds limits the pool of available prosthetic products, so, for example, microprocessor feet are not available, and adults cannot get sports limbs, although children may be able to.

If you have an amputation claim, we may be able to access interim funds for you to trial or purchase more suitable prostheses. These could include sports prostheses for running, cycling, climbing, skiing, snowboarding and water sports. Or you may prefer a prosthesis with a microprocessor. Apart from personal choice, your weight and fitness can impact your prostheses options, but there may also be other clinical factors.

For example, you may have a problem preventing you from using a prosthesis if your stump is too short to take a prosthesis. You may be in too much pain using the prosthesis because of skin friction or even develop a tumour on a nerve ending called a neuroma, which makes using a prosthesis too painful. Sometimes, a bony spur can grow on the amputated bone, which again prevents the use of a prosthesis. Another effect of amputation may be phantom limb pain, where you experience pain in the part of your body which has been amputated, which will need medical support for you to manage.

If, for whatever reason, you are unable to use a more traditional prosthesis, you may be more suited to an osseointegration solution. This is when a metal shaft is surgically placed into the stump, and the prosthesis can then be fixed to it. This is a major operation and needs to be carefully considered. It is currently unavailable on the NHS but could be considered part of an amputation injury claim in appropriate cases.

Psychological

When looking at your prosthesis needs, it is important to consider your psychological needs and get appropriate support. Around a third of amputees will suffer depression. This is unsurprising when you have suffered a life-changing injury, often in traumatic circumstances.

You are coming to terms with the fact that your body is no longer whole. You may have feelings of embarrassment, low self-esteem, and body image issues. You may also suffer a range of feelings to do with your loss, such as anger, grief, and frustration. You may also have negative feelings around your loss of independence or social isolation. All of these, in turn, could harm your close relationships.

Your mental health is a significant part of any serious injury, but in the case of an amputation, you need good psychological support so that you can engage successfully with your rehabilitation and use of your prostheses. This is why in an amputation claim, we will look to put in place the appropriate level of psychological support.

Other effects and interim payments

Other effects following an amputation can be a loss of income, if you are unable to return to any work, or are only able to return to work which pays less than you used to earn. Your home may no longer be suited to your needs because, if you are a lower limb amputee, you will need to use a wheelchair when you are resting your leg. So, you may need to move to ground floor accommodation or make other adaptations so that it is accessible for you.

Other effects will be how you travel, so you may need adaptations to return to driving or riding. This will often be important for you to return to work, but also to be able to access the community.

Due to the cost of your various needs that you may have with accommodation, travel adaptations, or covering lost income in an amputation claim, we always prioritise early interim payments wherever possible.

What is the role of an amputations claim solicitor?

Our personal injury solicitors are specialists in amputation injury.  They understand how stressful it can be to make a legal claim for your amputation injury, while at the same time trying to adapt to limb loss; they also understand the impact that this has on your family.  

We believe that early intervention is the best way to help you maximise your chances of rehabilitation, so we focus, where possible, on arranging case manager support and interim payments, whilst we work to secure the best overall outcome for you and your family. We always put you at the centre of everything we do.

As we are a broad-based practice we can provide holistic support and work with our colleagues in other legal disciplines to support your case, if needed.  It means you will benefit from a seamless, one-team approach. You are in safe hands.

We are:

• One of three law firms selected by The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham to support patients at the hospital as part of the 4 Trauma 4 Patients support service
• One of three firms selected by the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire operated by Cardinal Management to support patients as part of the Major Trauma Signposting project
• One of three firms selected by the Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital operated by Cardinal Management to support patients as part of the Major Trauma Signposting project
• Accredited members of Headway’s Head Injury Solicitors Directory
• Spinal Injuries Association trusted legal partner for the West Midlands
• Serious Injury Guide signatories
• Members of:
  • The Motor Accident Solicitors Society
  • Association of Personal Injury Lawyers
  • Birmingham Law Society
  • Approved Law Society Personal Injury Panel
  • Approved by Association for Victims of Medical Accidents
  • Recognised in Chambers and Partners Directory
  • Recommended by the Legal 500 as leading personal injury  lawyers.

Amputation payouts 

Compensation awards are broken down into a number of categories.  The award for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity, sometimes called general damages, will vary depending on the extent of a person’s injury and its impact on their life.  This is assessed individually, based on the medical evidence.  Here are the brackets of likely awards for amputation.

• Amputation of both arms - £265,000 - £330,000
• Amputation of one arm - £105,000 - £150,000
• Amputation of both hands - £154,000 - £221,000
• Amputation of one hand - £105,000 - £120,000
• Leg Amputations - £107,000 - £297,000
• Foot Amputations - £92,000 - £221,000
• Amputation of all toes - £40,000 - £61,000
• Amputation of big toes - c. £34,000