A woman who required £3,000 of dental work after finding a stone in her pre-made sandwich is, over 3 years later, still involved in a protracted personal injury compensation claim. It is hard to believe that a small stone in a sandwich could cause such an expensive personal injury, or that it could take nearly 4 years for the compensation claim to be settled.

According to The Yorkshire Post, Mrs Addy brought the pre-made sandwich in November 2006. Whilst eating the sandwich, she bit down on a small stone that was in the sandwich and felt a sharp pain. She quickly emailed the manufacturer about the problem and notified them of her injury. Eventually they apologised, and the store she had brought the sandwich from refunded her the cost of the sandwich. However, the pain from her tooth injury continued to get worse. Her GP prescribed her painkillers, but she later developed an abscess at the injury site.

In time, her dentist discovered that biting down on the stone had pushed her tooth up into her gum. In February 2007, she had to have the injured tooth removed. The removal of the offending tooth then caused her jaw to destabilise. The only way to stabilise her jaw was to have titanium implants fitted. The total cost of all this dental work was £3,000.

Mrs Abby, fearing being stuck with a huge bill, waited until the makers of the sandwich agreed to pay for the operation before having the implants fitted. When she got confirmation that the manufacturers would pay, she went ahead and had the operation in January 2010. 5 months and four procedures later she is finally free of pain. Despite agreeing to pay for the treatment, how much compensation Mrs Abby will receive for her suffering is yet to be agreed.

Compensation claims of this type are becoming more common in the UK. However, some manufacturers can still be reluctant to pay out even in such unambiguous cases.