Would like to hear from anyone who has taken on the NHS over miss-diagnoses and poor treatment while in hospital, seems nobody in the legal profession are interested in taking a case involving the NHS I have been told would stand no chance of winning a case because the hospital would say that the condition of my Wife who was miss-diagnosed for 4months from Oct.2007 could be the same as when she was diagnosed in Feb.2008 how can they possibly say this if they did not examine her corectly for 4 months???
FormerMember
My personal injury solicitor friend only takes personal injury cases that he can win.
If you had taken her for a second opinion soon after she first fell ill, you might be in with a chance. I'd say that most people only take on the NHS to promote a change within the hospital in terms of procedures. And of course to get answers. Do you think it would be worth the disruption now, to get her referred to a different hospital? It could take a lot more travel to go and see her, and a frightening journey if emergency treatment became neccessary. Penny transferred to the Marsden Hospital from the Midlands, for the same reason, misdiagnosis and got very good treatment.
Oesophageal cancer is a particularly distressing version, and I sympathise with your anxiety for her. I would save every piece of information given you, and ask for written reports on everything. Especially copies of scans etc. You would need those to transfer her anyway. Don't be distracted from her, by indignation at her treatment. It is hard I know, when I start blowing a fuse over an interminable wait in a clinic for no apparent reason. They still like to get everyone there and choose which ones to see next. Though not so much with Cancer.
I'm currently taking on our NHS Trust as my husband was misdiagnosed for 3 years. We have had an expert witness report thats says the consultant and the Trust failed in their duty of care, but he is still very vague in saying wether the outcome would have been any different. My husbands surgeon says the outcome would have been very different but we have to have an independant witness. My husband underwent a total glossectomy (Removal of his entire tongue) last May. He has metatastasis in both lungs and his liver, He has a PEG and is tube fed and has been since the operation until the other week he also had a tracheostomy tube which he fed through.
Our solicitor has been very good and has even taken the case on a no win no fee basis, it still costs for witness reports getting the medical records etc. we now have to prove causation, that the delay in diagnosis changed the outcome and this is the very area where the expert witness is very vague and states that if he'd been correctly diagnosed earlier especially in 2006 when all the tests had pointed to something wrong (they put it down to b12 deficiency and TMJ pain (jaw)) Then he could still have had the spread to his lungs and liver.
Personally I think any one in the street could say that if you leave cancer growing for 3 years the outcome would be very different to finding it sooner. Isn't that what it says on all the posters in the waiting rooms and on all leaflets. It is until you try and get them to say otherwise.
I would also like to add that my husband is under the care of a number of different Trust's since diagnosis and the treatment and care from all concerned has been superb.
Thank you for your comments about taking on the NHS, sorry to say can't take my Wife to another hospital as she died in October last year!! she was terminal when they found the tumour in February and was only given 6 months but we got her 8 months after a brave fight,in all her examinations of her oesophagus they only looked at the upper part never the lower or stomach she was only scand once and that was when they found a 28cm tumour in the lower oesophagus and stomach, I have all her medical records from her first hospital visit to her last until she was transfered into our local hospice, I even have coments from doctors who eventually found the tumour saying this should have been spotted sooner but this makes no difference when I consult a solicitor. Like you when you look around all the posters and even NHS directives on cancer say the sooner it's diagnosed the better chance you have but this works only when it suits them like with my Wife. Thank you for your comments.
Wish I could find a solicitor like your's Iv'e tried no win no fee, even willing to pay one to try and get justice but they all come back with the same comments that the hospital would say that there would have been no difference in the out come as the tumour could or would have been the same in October as it was in February when discovered!!! my comment is how can they be so sure if they did not do the correct procedure only looking at her upper oesophagus when examining her. I hope you are sucessfull in your case good luck and thanks for your comments.
I am taking on my GPs surgery as i was left for over a year being fobbed off, different type of cancer, but still misdiagnosed and untreated. I am currently using a firm of solicitors called Thompsons, who specialise in medical negligence. They were going to take me no win no fee, where i would have only paid for independant reports etc, but we decided to apply for legal aid, i now only pay £7.52 a month based on my income. Haven't got very far yet, my solicitor has only just requested my records, which has taken from September 2008 ot get this far, so will be a drawn out process i would imagine, but got to stick with it now so that it doesn't keep happening to others. Apparently my solicitor has 5 cases of malignant melonoma going on at the moment, which i find pretty shocking.....
