LITIGATION

Very wide question.  How long ago did you suffer the negligence and what actual damage was done?  I would advise seeing one of the 'no win, no fee' solicitors regarding a personal injury case.  They will have the day-to-day experience and expertise to know whether your case is a goer or not. 

There's a number of specialists around, a few advertise on TV now too.

Do you have a copy of your consent you signed prior to your op? Get a copy of it to pass on to whomever you select to represent you. 

I know a number of people who have gone through such a process following failure by the NHS, unfortunately none have been resolved in favour of the victim! They all used local specialist firms who specifically deal with medical negligence/error.

Personally speaking, my consultant went through the details with me, including the worse case scenarios, including failure and the possibility of it being worse etc. He did it with a nurse present and we all signed the document to agree with it. That's not to say your condition is within those boundaries, and that you were not fully aware of the possibility of failure etc.

Good luck to you.

My Dad is a doctor and he sees some terrible cases where back surgery has ended up making the patient less mobile, suffer more pain and generally have a much lower quality of life than before the surgery. I suffer from ankylosing spondylitism which leads to curvature of the spine and he has told me "swim as a often as you can, every day if you can it will do you immeasurably more good than any back surgery". He says he sees far more back surgeries that have gone wrong than ones that have worked out for the best. I don't think I'd ever elect to have spinal surgery.