Natalie Witherington has been in excruciating pain and spent 11 days in hospital after the procedure
Howard Lloyd Regional content editor
08:29, 28 Nov 2025
Natalie Witherington, 42
A mum has been left “terrified” after a botched routine injection left her shoulder so damaged that doctors thought she “had been in a car accident”. Natalie Witherington, 42, had visited Lawrence House Surgery in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, for a simple pneumonia vaccination on September 22 when the incident happened.
The mum-of-two says when the jab was administered it entered the “wrong part” of her left shoulder leaving her suffering “excruciating pain” after what should have been a simple procedure. She says when doctors examined her shoulder, they said they had only seen similar damage to victim of a car crash.
Natalie, of Scarborough, was later rushed to Scarborough General Hospital’s A&E department, where she had emergency surgery to wash out the joint. Doctors later diagnosed her with hemarthrosis – bleeding into the space around a joint – that was thought likely to have developed because of the injection.
Now, Natalie says she does not think her arm will ever be the “same again”. She said: “I’ve had to put up with a lot in life, but this has been a nightmare, and it’s left me terrified to have any kind of injection.
Natalie’s shoulder was so damaged that doctors thought she “had been in a car accident”
“I had physio for three months, but I’m in continual pain and still can’t move my arm properly – I don’t think it will ever be the same again.”
“I’d given the nurse full access to my shoulder, but she came up behind me and appeared out of nowhere to give me the injection. I’ve had loads of injections, but this one felt different. It felt like it had gone through the bone and brought tears to my eyes.
“The excruciating pain just didn’t seem to die down and kept getting worse to the point of me climbing the walls with pain. I rang the doctor, who said he’d never seen anything like this before in his life.
“And when I was in hospital, a consultant said that for a woman of my age, he’d never seen so much damage to a shoulder unless they’d been in a bad car accident.”
Natalie stayed in the hospital for 11 days. Hudgell Solicitors said Haxby Group, the healthcare organisation responsible for Lawrence House Surgery, fully denied liability but still agreed to a £35,000 settlement out of court.
Natalie said the jab was administered it entered the “wrong part” of her left shoulder
Hudgell Solicitors gained medical evidence from a nursing expert who concluded that there had been a breach of duty “not to correctly identify the site and administer the injection”.
Natalie, who suffers from several medical conditions, including Crohn’s disease, said: “What annoyed me more than anything else is that they kept saying they didn’t do anything wrong and that it didn’t happen.
“I know all medical staff are under so much pressure and I would have been quite happy to just to crack on and forget about it. All it would have taken was an acceptance they were at fault, but it never came and that’s when I got the help of Hudgells and Kirsty, who was amazing from day one and gave me the courage to stand up for myself.
“I didn’t think we had a hope, and I was shell-shocked with the settlement. But it was a bit of Catch-22 situation as all I was fighting for was an acceptance of blame that the injection was misplaced. I’ve never received that – and I probably never will.”
A Haxby Group Scarborough spokesperson said: “We do not comment on the detail of cases involving individual patients or those managed by the NHS Resolution service (following a claim being made against the practice).
“We are grateful to all patients who share their experiences with us and always strive to provide the best possible care to our communities.”