A WIDOWER claims he has suffered with a numb hand for more than a year after he was given a general anaesthetic injection for a hip replacement operation.

Donald Chapman, aged 83, of Woodbridge Close, St Peter’s,Worcester, says he has no feeling at all in two fingers and the thumb of his left hand where he had the anaesthetic at the Spire South Bank Hospital in Bath Road, Worcester, nearly a year and a half ago. Mr Chapman had the operation on September 6, 2009, at the private hospital, but the hip replacement was paid for by the NHS – in this case by the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Mr Chapman said: “While lying on a hospital trolley at South Bank Hospital for a total left hip replacement, the anaesthetist performed an injection into my left hand and immediately my two fingers went severely numb. My hand is still numb. My hand is absolutely useless. You drop something and don’t even realise you’ve dropped it. It’s affecting my quality of life.”

Mr Chapman had a nerve conduction test at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester on December 14, 2009, but says he has not had the other tests – such as a blood test and biopsy – needed to diagnose neuropathy – a condition which can cause pain and numbness.

Mr Chapman said he did not even know that he had peripheral neuropathy until he read a letter from John Rostill, chief executive of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, responding to his complaints on December 10, 2010 – nearly a year after the nerve conduction test was carried out.

Mr Rostill said the numbness was caused by “generalised neuropathy” rather than nerve damage caused by the injection, a view Mr Chapman does not accept. Mr Chapman was told the case was closed until he received a letter from Wendy Juggins, patient services assistant, on January 24 telling him that his complaint had been re-opened and that further investigations were being carried out.

A spokesman for the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We are looking into the concerns that Mr Chapman has raised with us recently and we will be corresponding directly with him.”