Bride Wins Compensation for Botched Laser Hair Removal

All brides want to look their best on their wedding day. This often means having special beauty and cosmetic treatments. Our client, Miss SS, decided to get a laser hair removal treatment, trusting that it would be safe and the clinic that provided the treatment would adhere to the highest standards of safety and care.

After undergoing the treatment, Miss SS developed severe skin damage, leading to scarring on her buttocks, underarms, and knees. This caused agonising pain and shattered Miss SS’s confidence at a time when she should have been happy and excited for the biggest day of her life.

Miss SS approached us to advise and represent her on making a clinical negligence compensation claim.

What was the clinic’s response to Miss SS’s claim?

To protect their interests, the owner of the clinic falsely claimed that a patch test had been carried out before the laser treatment, misleading their insurers and directly contradicting Miss SS’s version of events.

Our Medical Negligence specialist, Raja Eisa, led an investigation into the clinic’s care and treatment of Miss SS in order to prove that the laser treatment provided to Miss SS was negligent. Therefore, she should be paid compensation.

The law relating to medical negligence and consent to treatment

Medical negligence occurs when a healthcare professional provides treatment that falls below the accepted standard of care, resulting in the patient suffering an injury or worsening of their existing condition. To succeed in a medical negligence claim, the Claimant must prove, on the balance of probabilities, that:

1. The Defendant owed them a duty of care,
2. They breached that duty, and
3. The breach caused them to suffer a personal injury.

Part of a healthcare professional’s duty of care to their patient is to ensure the patient fully understands the procedure or treatment they will be given and the risks involved. In addition, the patient must provide informed consent to the treatment.

How we helped Miss SS

To establish whether the treatment provided to Miss SS fell below the accepted standard of care and that caused her to suffer severe burns, pain, and scarring, Raja collected witness statements, examined medical records and ultimately proved that no patch test had been performed. He worked closely with medical expert witnesses who provided reports that validated Miss SS’s claims. Raja was also able to show that the clinic failed to document its processes and procedures to the standard required and did not fully explain the risks of the procedure to Miss SS.

The Defendants admitted they were liable for Miss SS’s injuries. The case was successfully settled, and Miss SS received a fair compensation package that covered her physical injuries and the emotional distress she endured as a result of the scarring.

Empowering our client

The compensation we managed to secure for Miss SS allowed her to pay for private corrective treatment to minimise the scarring she received. This helped her begin to heal physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Having felt a loss of control before one of her life’s most momentous events, Miss SS wanted the financial means to take complete control of her recovery. Compensation allowed her to choose a highly experienced surgeon and access other types of support when she felt she needed it.

Also, by bringing a compensation claim, Miss SS was able to send a strong message to the cosmetic treatment sector about the risks of failing to follow proper safety procedures and the need to document details of a patient’s treatment carefully and explain the risks of specific procedures in full.