Whistleblower alerts police to concerns over woman’s spinal surgery

The woman was admitted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in 2017 for surgery on an arachnoid cyst – but later that same day had to have her wounds re-opened for a further operation, which the surgeon told her was because of blood clots.

As a result of the surgery, the woman now lives with numbness in her left foot and calf, as well as parts of her back and torso, and also struggles to walk. But despite this, she has never been offered any physiotherapy or other support by University Hospitals Sussex since leaving hospital after her operation – and says although she is in her 50s, she “feels like an old woman”.

However, it was six years after her operation, when Sussex Police launched Operation Bramber – an investigation into allegations of malpractice and serious harm being caused in the neurosurgery and general surgery departments at the Royal Sussex between 2015 and 2021 – that she discovered the true extent of her ordeal.

Police, alerted by a whistleblower who came forward with information about practices at the hospital, got in touch with the woman in late 2024 to inform her she had in fact suffered a haematoma and informed her that her case formed part of their investigation – which now includes more than 200 cases.

“It was a complete shock to be told this, all these years later. I knew I’d had a bad experience at this hospital, but to be told your case is part of a police investigation is really very shocking,” says the woman.

“I had no idea about the haematoma. When I was informed of this, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. At first I was upset, but now I’m really angry. I would never have known this if the whistleblower hadn’t come forward. Why did they keep this from me?”

The woman initially went to the Royal Sussex in June 2017 after experiencing pain in her back and left leg. She recalls her “absolutely awful” experience of staying in a ward where she was not even given a pillow, before being operated on a few days later.

Since that time, she reports ongoing and growing health problems, with suspicion that recent excruciating pain in her hips and legs may also be linked to her surgery.

“I remember waking up from the first operation and being in a lot of pain, then realising I couldn’t move my legs. That was terrifying. I had to have another scan and a very abrupt doctor told me there were some blood clots, but not how they had occurred and certainly not – as I would discover years later – how serious this was. I now know why they operated so quickly,” she recalls.

“The second operation was done that same night, and was really painful because they were opening up the same scars again. I was very poorly after this operation, and had to stay in hospital for a week – although I must say the nurses on the wards were brilliant – but once I could show the physiotherapist I could walk, I was allowed to go home.

“Since then, I feel like I’ve gone from a healthy woman who was in my 40s at the time, I was in a good place, to an old woman. My condition has never improved, and if anything it has got worse. I have never had any physiotherapy since the day I left hospital after my operation. I’ve had a few falls outside because my leg gives way and have also fallen down stairs. I’m very much the sort of person who just gets on with things, but it has been a lot to take.

“I am now wondering whether the pain I’m having in my hips and legs is related to this, because it has affected so much of my life already. I have had some treatment which I was told should have worked but it hasn’t. Before that operation in 2017, I had no problems at all. Now I have nothing but problems.”

The woman is being supported by law firm Slater and Gordon, which is acting for growing numbers of people whose cases form part of Operation Bramber.

Nisha Sharma, principal lawyer and clinical negligence specialist, says: “The lifelong consequences our client is forced to live with after surgery are bad enough, but the fact she only discovered the severity of the situation she faced years later by being told she is part of a police investigation is truly shocking.

“This raises serious questions about why she was not told this vital information, and the hospital and Trust need to answer these. Working alongside the Operation Bramber investigation, we are committed to doing all we can to support our client in finding the answers she needs and deserves.”

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