Botched vaccine left mom so damaged doctors thought she was in car…

A mom has been left “terrified” after a routine vaccination went disastrously mistaken, inflicting such extreme shoulder injury that medical professionals initially believed she “had been in a car accident”.

Natalie Witherington, 42, visited Lawrence House Surgery in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, for what ought to have been a simple pneumonia shot on September 22 when catastrophe struck.

The mother-of-two claims the injection was administered into the “wrong part” of her left shoulder, triggering “excruciating pain” following what was meant to be a routine medical process.

Medical professionals who later examined her shoulder reported they’d only witnessed comparable accidents in car crash victims.

Natalie, from Scarborough, was subsequently rushed to Scarborough General Hospital’s emergency division, where she underwent pressing surgical procedure to flush out the joint.

Medical workers later confirmed she had developed hemarthrosis – inside bleeding within the joint space – which they believed was doubtless triggered by the injection.

The 42-year-old now fears her arm will never absolutely get well.

She said: “I’ve had to put up with a lot in life, but this has been a nightmare, and it’s left me terrified to have any kind of injection.

“I had physio for three months, but I’m in continuous pain and still cannot transfer my arm correctly – I do not suppose it’s going to ever be the same again.

“I’d given the nurse full access to my shoulder, but she came up behind me and appeared out of nowhere to give me the injection.

“I’ve had masses of injections, but this one felt different. It felt prefer it had gone through the bone and introduced tears to my eyes.

“The excruciating pain just didn’t seem to die down and kept getting worse to the point of me climbing the walls with pain.

“I rang the doctor, who said he’d never seen something like this before in his life.

“And when I was in hospital, a consultant said that for a woman of my age, he’d never seen so much damage to a shoulder unless they’d been in a bad car accident.”

Natalie remained in the hospital for 11 days.

Hudgell Solicitors reported that Haxby Group, the healthcare group accountable for Lawrence House Surgery, utterly denied legal responsibility but nonetheless agreed to a $35,000 settlement out of court.

Hudgell Solicitors obtained medical evidence from a nursing skilled who decided that there had been a breach of responsibility “not to correctly identify the site and administer the injection”.

Natalie, who lives with a number of medical situations, including Crohn’s disease, said: “What annoyed me more than anything else is that they kept saying they didn’t do anything wrong and that it didn’t happen.

“I do know all medical workers are under so a lot strain and I’d have been fairly joyful to just to crack on and neglect about it.

“All it would have taken was an acceptance they were at fault, but it never came and that’s when I got the help of Hudgells and Kirsty, who was amazing from day one and gave me the courage to stand up for myself.

“I did not suppose we had a hope, and I was shell-shocked with the settlement. But it was a bit of Catch-22 state of affairs as all I was combating for was an acceptance of blame that the injection was misplaced.

“I’ve never received that – and I probably never will.”

A spokesperson for Haxby Group Scarborough acknowledged: “We do not comment on the detail of cases involving individual patients or those managed by the NHS Resolution service (following a claim being made against the practice).

“We are grateful to all sufferers who share their experiences with us and always attempt to present the best doable care to our communities.”