§ PUBLISHED JUDGMENT · 2025

Rebecca Hepworth v Dr Amanda Coates

[2025] EWHC 1907 (KB)·High Court (King's Bench Division), Birmingham District Registry·22 July 2025

A 27-year-old flight attendant saw her GP with severe back and leg pain, having mentioned perianal numbness in a message two days earlier; she had emergency surgery for cauda equina syndrome four days after the consultation. The judge accepted that the GP asked the right red-flag questions and that the patient answered no, so there was no breach of duty.

Outcome

Claim failed

Sum stated in judgment

Not stated

Claim type

Cauda Equina Syndrome

Decided

Liability decided at trial

G
ClaimGavel Assistant
● Online · Cauda Equina Syndrome · free & confidential
FREE
TELL US WHAT HAPPENED — TYPE HERE

Start typing — your likely claim, value and time limit appear here.

Describe what happened (a sentence or two) to begin.

Free · confidential · not legal adviceEngland

§ WHAT HAPPENED

The facts, in brief.

Defendant: Dr Amanda Coates (general practitioner)

Injury: Cauda equina syndrome with permanent bladder dysfunction requiring self-catheterisation, bowel dysfunction, perianal sensory loss, right leg neuropathic pain and foot drop

Specialty: General practice / spinal surgery · England

§ WHAT THE COURT SAID

In the judgment’s own words.

“The alleged breach of duty is not made out on the evidence. Therefore, the claim fails.”

The money

Claim dismissed. The schedule of loss had claimed special damages in excess of £5 million ([4]).

§ WHY IT MATTERS

What this case shows.

In cauda equina cases the court looks closely at what safety-netting questions the GP actually asked and what the patient answered on the day. Contemporaneous notes and messages matter greatly for both sides.

About cauda equina syndrome claims →

§ MORE CAUDA EQUINA SYNDROME JUDGMENTS

Claim failed

Karen Spellman v Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust

[2024] EWHC 2011 (KB)·2024·Liability decided at trial

Ms Spellman alleged a hospital radiologist missed cauda equina compression on an MRI scan taken the day after her fall, delaying diagnosis until private surgery six days later. Damages had been agreed at £300,000 if she won, but the judge found the scan showed only mild stenosis with no compression to be found, so the claim failed.

Parties sometimes agree the damages figure in advance and fight only liability, so a claimant who loses on breach of duty recovers nothing. Expert evidence on what the scan actually showed was decisive.

All cauda equina syndrome judgments →

Contains information licensed under the Open Justice - Licence v2.0. Judgments from Find Case Law, The National Archives. Summaries are ours; amounts only where printed in the judgment.

This guide is general information about the law in England and Wales, not legal advice about your case. ClaimGavel is run by Costart Projects Ltd on behalf of Tomlin & Partners, a specialist medical negligence firm regulated by the SRA. The free assessment on this page is an AI overview to show you roughly where you stand; a solicitor confirms the position in a free, no-obligation conversation.