Elbow replacement surgery could have been in jeopardy after fall at work

A 52-year-old arthritis sufferer slipped at work and fractured the elbow that she was due to have replaced 11 days later. She received £3500 in compensation after health and safety issues were raised over a long term problem with water leaking from refrigerated cooling racks where she worked.

It was alleged that her employer, a pharmaceutical company, was supposed to carry out safety checks in the vicinity of the area concerned every 12 months and yet for whatever reason, recommendations were either ignored or the checks were not implemented at all.

This went on for approximately five years, but it was a well known issue with employees who regularly complained or reported the water leakage but nothing was done to fix it. At the time of her fall, the employee already had a joint replacement operation pre-booked and her payout of £3500 reflected the amount of time that she would have to suffer between the work accident and her pre-arranged surgery.

A spokesman for the injured woman said that the leaking refrigerated cooling racks were an accident waiting to happen, but the pharmaceutical company immediately came up with the compensation and did not put up any argument against the claim.

Following her accident at work, the employee went on to have successful joint replacement surgery as scheduled despite her broken elbow and she said that she is very pleased with the outcome and more confident using her arm since the operation.