A British man has won a six-figure payout after a botched bowel surgery in 2012 created a leak in his bowel.

The error reportedly made him vomit blood and faeces and left him in great pain with swelling in his abdomen.

Mr Graeme Cross, 33, had the operation in the James Cook University Hospital in North Yorkshire's Middlesbrough town in July 2012, British media reported.

He had gone for surgery as he had Crohn's disease, a kind of inflammatory bowel disease, and was hoping the operation would ease his symptoms, the Metro reported on Friday (Jan 19).

The disease causes symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fever and weight loss.

However, after his surgery, he suffered "agonising pain", Mr Cross told British newspaper GazetteLive, which first reported about Mr Cross on Thursday.

He endured this for a week before he was diagnosed with a leak in his bowel.

Mr Cross was placed in intensive care, and managed to recover, but he has been left with "a very short bowel", with muscle removed from his thigh to rebuild his abdomen.

He was awarded a six-figure settlement from the National Health Service's South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation trust, after mediation.

A spokesman for the trust said that the claim was settled out of court on confidential terms without any admissions of liability.

"We appreciate this has been a difficult time for Mr Cross and his family and hope the settlement will help improve his quality of life," the spokesman told The Mirror. "The Trust treats all claims as an opportunity to learn and to improve further the safety and quality of care of our patients."

Mr Cross, who was previously a mechanic, told the GazetteLive that the past five years "have been a devastating nightmare".

"It's clearly a sensitive and sometimes embarrassing illness when you have bowel problems but instead of protecting my dignity, the general care I received left me feeling humiliated," he said. "I am thankful to my legal team for securing me this settlement as it provides some form of closure with the legal action ending. My only hope now is that the Trust can learn from what happened to me to ensure that it happens to no other patients."