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Written on 10th May 2021 by Claire Roantree

Boyes Turner’s injury claims lawyers have secured a £135,000 settlement for a healthcare assistant who was left with facial injuries, widespread pain (fibromyalgia) and psychological injuries including PTSD after repeatedly being head-butted by a patient at work.

Our client was in her sixties when she was head-butted twice in close succession by a patient at the care home where she worked. She suffered facial injuries including bruising, a laceration to her nose and four chipped front teeth, and shock, headache, nausea and dizziness.

Immediately following the assault, she suffered pain and stiffness in her neck and back. In the weeks following the accident, she began to experience shooting pains to her arms, fingers and legs, pain in her joints. She developed fibromyalgia syndrome with widespread pain and aches throughout her body, altered sensation including numbness, tingling and cold spots. Her pain is  aggravated by activity, including walking, climbing stairs, standing or doing housework. She suffers from stiffness, fatigue, disturbed sleep and blurred vision. Her attention span, concentration and short-term memory are impaired. 

Her psychological injuries included post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) including flashback and panic attacks, anxiety and major depression which limited her ability to respond to psychological treatment. Her psychological injury increased her pain from the fibromyalgia.  

At the time of the injury, our client was nearing retirement, but was still working full-time. After the assault, her pain and fatigue left her unable to return to full-time work and she struggled to hold down several alternative part time jobs. She moved to accommodation that was more suitable for her restricted mobility but needs ongoing help with looking after herself and household tasks. Her leisure activities are now restricted. 

We helped our client make a claim for compensation for her injuries against the defendant, her employer. We secured an admission of liability for the assault and an interim payment of £11,000 for our client to ease her financial hardship and access psychological treatment. The defendant initially tried to deny that they were responsible for our client’s ongoing disability by suggesting that her fibromyalgia pre-dated the injury. However, we were able to gather evidence which proved that our client’s fibromyalgia was a new condition which had been caused by the assault. The claim concluded with an out-of-court settlement of £135,000.

If you or a family member have been seriously injured in an accident and would like to find out more about making a claim, contact us by email at piclaims@boyesturner.com.