Hospital left human teeth embedded in man's leg following iPad trampoline incident

A man who had his best friend's teeth embedded in his leg in an accident on a trampoline is suing a hospital for failing to remove them. Daniel Rigby, of Pollards Hill, south London, has suffered debilitating knee swelling since the incident in March following which he says Croydon University Hospital failed to fully remove the three teeth which have caused the infection. The 29-year-old was lying on his trampoline on FaceTime on his iPad at about 10am, when best friend, Peter Walsh, who had been drinking, came over to join him.



Mr Rigby said: "He jumped on and tried to kick me, I pulled his leg away and his face smashed into my knee and then he blacked out. He was probably out for a couple of minutes. He was face down and I saw blood coming out of his mouth so I thought it was quite bad. I tried to stand up and then collapsed because of my leg." After his friend came-to he managed to drag them both into a cab which rushed them to Accident and Emergency at Croydon University Hospital. He said: "When I got to hospital the doctor took me into a cubicle and I said to him, there's still teeth in my leg.

"He took me off to x-ray and he said there's only a bit of bone cartilage, nothing to worry about. They gave me two stitches and sent me on my way." Afterwards the men went to Mr Walsh's house where his nan inspected the knee and said she thought it was infected and he should return to hospital straight away. The next day Mr Rigby went to A&E at St George's Hospital in Tooting, where doctors opened the wound and cleaned out parts of the teeth. Mr Rigby, who now feels insecure wearing shorts and going swimming, has employed a solicitor to file a negligence claim against the hospital for failing to spot that parts of the teeth remained in his leg.



A Croydon Health Services NHS Trust spokesman said: "We cannot comment in detail on individual cases due to patient confidentiality. Patients in our care are advised to contact us again after treatment if their condition persists or worsens. We would encourage Mr Rigby to contact us if he has any concerns about his care." Mr Rigby, who works as a scaffolder and will soon be a father, thinks the injury will have an impact on his future career. He said: "It's really bad. Since it happened my legs stiffens up and I have to strap it up when it gets really bad. I'm very grateful for the treatment I got at St George's but not to the man who treated me at Croydon."