A Southampton man has launched a High Court claim against the NHS demanding £200,000 for the loss of his sex life among other problems.

The former sales manager for a plumbers merchant, says in his claim, which has just been made publicly available at the court in London, that negligent treatment at Southampton General Hospital has left him severely disabled, and unable to have sex with his partner.

The court papers say that he injured his back at work moving a boiler in 2011, leading to intermittent shooting pains in his leg, and was taken to hospital on October 27 2018 when the pain suddenly became much worse.

He had been taking “vast amounts” of codeine to cope with the pain, as well as alcohol, and doctors thought he might be suffering from damage to the nerves in his spine.

Follow our latest court news in our free newsletter delivered straight to your inbox for free

However the papers say that a neurosurgery specialist registrar wrongly recorded his symptoms and discharged him from hospital.

His pain worsened, and he went back to hospital for an MRI scan, but could not lie flat because of severe back pain and because he felt claustrophobic, the claim says.

It says that when he eventually had an MRI scan on November 16, results showed he had a very large prolapsed lumbar disc pressing on his spinal nerves but he was sent home the next day.

The claimaint believes that this was because he was morbidly obese, and surgery would have had little chance of improving his condition.

His condition deteriorated, and by mid-December doctors thought his condition could not be reversed by surgery, which carried a high risk of complications.

The papers say he has been seen in the regional spinal injuries unit at Salisbury but now he is severely disabled with no feeling in his bladder, has lost sensation in his genitals, has problems with his bowels, and is disabled by severe leg and spinal pain.

It is claimed that if he and his partner are to have children, as they wish, they will need to use a sperm retrieval process, and in vitro fertilisations.

The claimant from Sholing, Southampton, accuses the trust which runs the hospital of negligence, and says clinicians completely overlooked ambulance and emergency department records of his symptoms.

He says he should have been given an emergency MRI scan followed by emergency surgery and would then have retained full bladder and bowel function, kept his sex life, and avoided leg pain and lack of mobility.