Has anyone made a claim against the NHS?

[Tommy21bn]

It's as simple as that really.

I was mistakenly diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis when I have Crohns. This incorrect diagnosis led me to believe that I could have an ileo-anal pouch. This was a total disaster that almost killed me.

Recently I received the correct diagnosis of Crohns and I am now receiving the appropriate treatment. Unfortunately I am left with strictures caused by long term inflammation and scarring. I would have an operation to remove the strictures but the ileo-anal pouch has meant that I do not have enough bowel to lose without being forced to be permanently fed by bag.

In summation I have been left in cronic pain caused by the strictures and reliant on large quantities of painkillers.

The lawyers tell me there is a good case to make a claim as the prior incorrect diagnosis is affecting my current treatment options. I am of course still nervous about making a claim as this is an organisation that I have always been reliant on and no doubt will always be.

Has anyone had any experience of making a claim? Has this altered your relationship with your Surgeon or Gastroenterologist? I'd be grateful to hear of anyones experiences. Many thanks.

 

[Sophabulous]

I haven't and although I think we've probably all been misdiagnosed along the line, it sounds like your life has been hugely affected by this.

My understanding is that they set aside money for claims of this nature and so you there is a budget in place for mistakes. They would likely settle out of court with you anyway to avoid any bad PR for the hospital trust involved.

I would imagine you could change to another hospital if you felt it might impact your care going forward, but I don't know if other hospitals would know that you've successfully claimed against a previous care failure. In any case given the circumstances I'm sure they would understand this given the impact it's had on your quality of life.

As a side note, do you mind me asking how the misdiagnosis happened? Did they fail to take or misread biopsy results?

Hope you find some peace and feel better soon x

 

[Pug Gamer]

A friend of mine sued the nhs for killing her mum. Misdiagnosis, wrong medication and refusal of tests meant she was riddled with cancer as it had spread while they left her untreated and it was too late by the time they saw there mistake. They had a load of evidence and years later there still fighting. They consequently refused to treat my friend and her dad. So had to move GP and specialists. It really has made them regret it, although i think its disgusting they should get away with it. I would be careful as they all close ranks covered for eachother, and lied when it was word of mouth. But if you do i fully agree you should get some compensation. People have said i should sue but im just not up for such a fight. Let us know what you decide..

 

[Sophabulous]

A friend of mine sued the nhs for killing her mum. Misdiagnosis, wrong medication and refusal of tests meant she was riddled with cancer as it had spread while they left her untreated and it was too late by the time they saw there mistake. They had a load of evidence and years later there still fighting. They consequently refused to treat my friend and her dad. So had to move GP and specialists. It really has made them regret it, although i think its disgusting they should get away with it. I would be careful as they all close ranks covered for eachother, and lied when it was word of mouth. But if you do i fully agree you should get some compensation. People have said i should sue but im just not up for such a fight. Let us know what you decide..

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope it was just a bad experience with one hospital and this isn't how it always goes. Just for another example someone I know's mum had her bowel perforated during a routine gynaecological procedure. Even though she had signed a disclaimer to say she understood that could happen, when it nearly killed her and she pursued it they did give her something like £7000 compensation to stop it going any further.

I don't know how much fight was involved in this but she continued to use the same hospital for her (unrelated) cancer treatment a few years later and had no further issues.

It's certainly worth putting the feelers out in my opinion, just to see what sort of response you get.

Good luck x

 

[johnsmclean]

You would need good evidence that they were negligent in misdiagnosing the form of IBD you have. Some IBD sufferers have a mixture of both (about 5%) and you may fall into this camp.

 

[Tommy21bn]

The diagnosis was taken from a biopsy of the remains of my large bowel. I would hope that there was enough left to give a correct diagnosis. If not, then I should have been informed of this at the time.

Thank you for for your contribution.

 

[Lizzie]

I'm sorry you've had such a terrible time. My guess is the medics would claim you originally had UC, and that was a correct diagnosis at the time but you later developed Crohns. That's what my GI told me about my own condition when I argued that I'd had Crohns all along. My dad had Crohns, so I've been convinced right from the first diagnosis of proctitis that it's actually been Crohns, but I was only given the Crohns diagnosis several years on when I became really ill. I've no idea how you could prove they were wrong to diagnose UC rather than that your condition had changed over time.