OAP wins pay-out on leg amputation

Doreen Nicholls, 72, was told a lump in her foot was cancerous and needed her leg to be removed below the knee to stop it spreading.

But after the operation at Birmingham's Royal Orthopaedic Hospital she was told the lump had not been cancerous at all.

The mother-of-two has now received a six-figure payout in an out-of-court compensation payment, but today her solicitor called for the hospital to ensure lessons are learned.

Law firm Irwin Mitchell said it was not the first time mistakes had been made by the pathology laboratory at the world-renowned hospital.

Mrs Nicholls, from Halesowen, West Midlands, was referred by her GP to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in August 2007 to investigate a long-standing swelling of her left foot.

A team of experts, including orthopaedic, radiology and histology clinicians, met to discuss her condition.

The decision was taken to follow histopathology findings that a needle biopsy showed "features of an aggressive tumour" - a soft tissue cancer, known as a "sclerosing epitheliod fibrosarcoma" (SEF).

Mrs Nicholls was advised a below-the-knee amputation of her left leg would stop the cancer spreading and she underwent surgery on October 10, 2007.

It was only after further post-operative tests that it was discovered the swelling was due to a non-cancerous condition known as pigmented villo nodular synovitis.