A pensioner is seeking £75,000 in damages from Scotland’s oldest hospice after she was injured by a “defective” meals trolley and underwent a hip replacement.

Kay Nicol, of Yoker, Glasgow, suffered an injury to her ankle while pulling a “large, heavy and difficult to manoeuvre” trolley at St Margaret’s Hospice in Clydebank.

The 66-year-old former hostess alleges that her employers were “hostile and sceptical” of her injury and blamed her for the incident.

Ms Nicol was diagnosed with a “moderately severe depressive episode” after the incident and is said to have become withdrawn and anxious, often struggling to get out of bed.

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A trial got underway yesterday at Dumbarton Sheriff Court, which is expected to last at least a week.

The former hospice worker claims her employers failed to maintain safe equipment for staff and that one of the wheels of the trolley was defective.

The incident happened at 5.30pm on or around October 14 in 2013.

Ms Nicol was pulling a wheeled serving trolley, loaded with 26 full dinner plates and other serving dishes, assisted by a colleague, who was pushing at the back.

She alleges she was injured after her colleague pushed “hard” on the trolley, striking her ankle and caused her right leg to twist.

She was taken to hospital and treated for the injury and returned to work on December 9 but continued to suffer pain and was eventually diagnosed with “osteoarthritic” changes in her hip.

Just over a year later, she underwent hip replacement surgery at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank.

Ms Nicol claims her hip was “pain free” prior to the incident. She left her job in March 2014 and did not return.

The hospice, which is a registered charity, deny all charges against them. They claim that the trolley was “in a good state of repair” and that staff were taught the correct procedure to operate the trolley, which was for one employee to push and another to lead the trolley, while walking backwards.

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They claim that the injury Ms Nicol suffered exacerbated a pre-existing condition and that she did not take reasonable care for her own safety.

Ms Nicol says that management were aware that staff were operating the trolley alone and that a safer system would have been to provide a powered trolley or two smaller trolleys.

She says she enjoyed working with the hospice patients and would have continued to work beyond retirement if the incident had not occurred. She is seeking damages for loss of earnings and injury.

Ms Nicol was due to give evidence yesterday afternoon with further witnesses including an orthopaedic specialist expected to appear later in the week.

St Margaret’s opened in 1950 and is the oldest and largest hospice in Scotland.

The trial, before Sheriff Gallagher, continues.