Damages for 'breast blunder' woman

Anita Froggatt: Suffered trauma during the incident

A woman who had a healthy breast removed after she was wrongly diagnosed with cancer has been awarded £346,000 in damages.

Anita Froggatt, from Chesterfield, was awarded the payout on Friday at the High Court, in London.

Ms Froggatt had a lump on her right breast removed at Chesterfield Royal Hospital as a precaution.

Tests on the lump afterwards, which indicated she had cancer, turned out to have been muddled with cancerous tissue in a hospital laboratory.

The judge was told by her counsel, Christopher Gardner QC, at a hearing last month she was the victim of a series of "indefensible misdiagnoses".

Events at Chesterfield Royal Hospital in February and March 1999 had an enormous effect upon her feelings of femininity and self worth and engendered "almost unimaginable psychological trauma".

Painful surgery

Mrs Froggatt brought the action against Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Royal Hospital NHS Trust, which admitted liability but disputed the amount of damages.

She claimed painful reconstructive surgery had resulted in one breast being significantly lower than the other, scarring and the lack of a nipple.

She was unable to work, decorate, garden, or walk her dog and her libido had been affected, she said.

Back in 1999 she told the BBC: "I can't see any future. I just need them to rebuild my bust and get me some counselling.

"I need some help."