Model and author Tara Moss in a wheelchair amid her legal battle with the Australian surgeon over alleged negligence
Tara Moss is in a legal battle with a surgeon who operated on her hip six years ago and claims their “negligence” has now left her in a wheelchair.
The 49-year-old model-turned-author claims the surgery caused years of “agonizing pain and job loss and left her using a cane,” reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
The British Columbian resident’s lawyers claim this is because Blue Mountains doctor Chris Coghill failed to diagnose a proper labral tear in her hip in 2016 — Coghill has denied the claim.
“The defendant says that if any damage was suffered by the plaintiff as alleged, which is denied, it was caused or contributed to by (her) own negligence,” the defense said.
Both teams met on Friday for a mediation session to see if they could come to a settlement.
Tara Moss, 49, (pictured) is in a legal battle with a surgeon who operated on her hip six years ago and claims their ‘negligence’ left her in a wheelchair
They will go to court in May for a scheduled six-week trial if an agreement cannot be reached.
Moss recently submitted a substantial “evidence statement” in support of her case, which spans about 80 pages of social media content.
Tara has been open about her struggles with pain in recent years, documenting her use of a cane and wheelchair on Instagram.
And in 2021, the model gave a telling interview in which she revealed that being in constant pain has changed the way her brain works.
The raven black beauty told Body and soul magazine: ‘I found out that chronic pain is actually neuroplasticity – changes in the brain – gone wrong.
The model-turned-author claims the surgery has “caused agonizing pain and loss of work for years and left her with a cane,” reports The Sydney Morning Herald
Tara has been open about her struggles with pain in recent years, documenting her use of a cane and wheelchair on Instagram
“Now I want to use the brain’s adaptability to work to my advantage, and retrain it not to be so loud and vocal about my pain.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the author was critical of the lack of accessible spaces for people with disabilities.
Tara began modeling at the age of 14, before turning her attention to writing and publishing her first novel, Fetish, in 1999.
She is now a best-selling author who has published 13 books in 18 countries and 13 languages around the world, and is regarded as one of Australia’s top crime novelists.
The former model lives in the Blue Mountains with her Australian poet husband Berndt Sellheim and their 12-year-old daughter Sapphira.
In 2021, the model gave a telling interview where she revealed that being in constant pain has changed the way her brain works