Helena Wood

Practice Areas

Medical Negligence, Birth Injury, Obstetric Negligence, Delayed Diagnosis

Career

Helena has specialised in clinical negligence claims since 2008 and has successfully represented clients who have experienced birth injuries, amputation, brain injury and fatal negligence claims.

Helena is a chartered legal executive and team leader in the clinical negligence practice and also has a strong focus on surgical errors, delayed cancer diagnosis and obstetric and gynaecological cases.

Ranked in the Legal 500 Guide, clients seek out Helena’s expertise and advice when considering taking legal action against NHS Trusts as she has significant experience in holding them to account and identifying failings.

The guide states: “Helena has all the key characteristics of a great claimant lawyer: she is highly dedicated to her clients, she is personable and patient with them, she works hard, and she is realistic about her cases.

Professional Memberships

* Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives

* Member of AvMA (Action against Medical Accidents) – the UK charity for patient safety and justice.

Work Highlights

Helena has obtained significant damages for children who have lost a parent or clients that have lost a spouse due clinical negligence, often due to delay in diagnosis of cancer or surgical negligence. The awards can be substantial because they take into account future loss of earnings.

Recently she secured a six-figure damages settlement for her client after errors meant a blood clot on his lungs was missed on scans, causing a 12-month delay in diagnosis. The health Trust accepted liability but initially offered a £10,000 settlement. The claim settled for more than ten times that amount after Helena secured independent expert medical opinion.

In another case damages of £80,000 were secured for a 50-year-old mother who was left worse off following knee replacement surgery. As part of the case Helena alleged she would not have agreed had she been fully informed of the risks.

She was also successful in securing a £65,000 damages settlement for a 61-year-old woman whose brain tumour was missed, despite undergoing scans. In an out of court settlement the Trust admitted breach of duty.