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This article was published on May 11th, 2016
A mother of two was misdiagnosed a serious back injury multiple times by NHS health professionals, which has led to the 27 year old being wheelchair bound.
The woman fell down some stairs, leaving her in considerable pain including tingling sensations in her leg, numbness and difficulty going to the loo. When she visited a physio, they immediately referred her to hospital for an MRI scan. Her GP advised her to keep moving around and to take pain relief but this did not help the pain.
When she arrived at the hospital, with the referral letter, the hospital staff did not carry out the scan and instead they did an X-ray which showed nothing and sent her home with pain killers. The continued pain caused her to attend another hospital for a second opinion who told her she had a broken coccyx and just to continue with the pain medication. She was only correctly diagnosed when the friend she was with at the hospital, insisted she did not leave the second hospital until another more senior doctor assessed her. This doctor immediately diagnosed her condition, which was actually a shattered disc, and sent her to a specialist hospital for immediate back surgery to repair the disc in her spine.
Her friend said: “How on earth could she have been have been misdiagnosed so many times after presenting herself to various different health professionals?”
The woman was operated on and received decompression surgery which removed the pressure on the spine but she is now unable to feel her legs.
Her friend said: “She was told that being misdiagnosed for so long is why she had such bad nerve damage,
“She has been pushed from pillar to post and it’s not good enough. She used to be so independent and active – she’s just get up and say ‘right, we’re going’.”
Money is often no consolation for such a tragic incident but sadly medical negligence like this does sometimes happen and the compensation is invaluable when it comes to providing support to the injured party and their family. If you have been unfortunate enough to have experienced a misdiagnosis in hospital then contact us now at Thorneycroft Solicitors today for a free no-obligation assessment of your case on 0800 1979 345 or complete our online enquiry form.
Our medical negligence solicitors are dedicated to maximising the compensation for medical negligence available on a no win – no fee basis.
