Mis-Diagnosis - Doncaster Royal Imfirmary

[killsville]

Have been looking at the Bank Charges threads and only just noticed the section for the NHS.

Back in December last year my father took ill, with symptoms of loss of balance and confusion.

We called NHS direct and gave them details of his symptoms. They said that it could be a mild stroke and that we should get him to hospital as soon as possible.

The following morning we took him to the A&E Dept where he was examined by a doctor. After four hours of prodding, poking and taking blood tests, they diagnosed him as having anaemia. We stressed to the doctors what NHS Direct had said and despite us making several requests for a brain scan, the doctor refused and said it was not necessary.

We then visited our local GP who did further tests and was baffled by what the hospital said.

Call it instinct if you like, but we did not believe anaemia was the cause of his symptoms and asked to be referred privately to a specialist.

The specialist was not happy with what the A&E Doctor had diagnosed and immediately order a brain scan and chest x-rays.

On the day of the brian scan he was admitted to hospital straight away having been diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Nine months and two major brain operations later, he is finally starting to recover. This is thanks to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield.

Had we agreed with Doncaster Royal's diagnosis, my dad would have been dead now.

A family friend, who is a solicitor is currently trying to get some sort of apology for the total cock up but has come across some very cocky senior staff at the hospital.

If I ever get a face to face meeting with them, they will wonder what has hit them!

[robbiedonkey]

Hi have read your post with interest as i to am a resident of Doncaster.Have you spoken to the Freepress about this or even the Yorkshire Post.I seem to remember over the last 10 years the DRI has had quite a record of getting things wrong in a big way with patients,sometimes leading to deaths.If there,s one thing that will spur the board of directors into action its the threat of a costly court case and the loss of its star rating.hope this will help,Rob.

[feefofum]

Is it only an apology you're after? Or are you looking for compensation too?

Have you got a copy of all your fathers medical notes?

Do you know if any of your fathers symptoms fell under any hospital protocal for ordering a brain scan? (from what you've said, there are a number of differential diagnoses for your fathers symptoms, not all of them warrant a brain scan. Was he dispalying these symptoms in A&E at the time of examination?)

What level was the doctor treating your father? Only very senior Docs have the authority to order brain scans (otherwise every man and his dog with a headache would be in the scanner). If he was a junior Doc, do you know if he discussed the case with a senior dr?

Firstly, medical staff will back each other up till the very end as they work under extreme pressure as it is, they won't make each others jobs harder by stabbing each other in the back and supporting outside action against each other (unless it really is a case of gross negligence/incompetence, but in which case they would not allow it to happen in the first place).

Just a few things for you to consider really.

[CharlottePetersRock]

I so agree with the posting of Feefofum (26th September). However, Doncaster Royal Infirmary pales into insignificance when compared to Doncaster East Primary Care Trust, Doncaster Central Primary Care Trust and Doncaster and South Humber NHS Trust.

Doctors and nurses from all three of those Trusts, were instrumental in killing my father, when he had not been dying nor asking to die. As they killed him, a doctor from his own GP surgery constantly and knowingly lied to us. (Yes, I have documentary proof). Also on the day he died, the Medical Director of the local hospice was brought in to lie to us. They stated several times that he had terminal oesophageal cancer. Do read his pathology report on the web site below.

He was killed in the 'safety' and - more importantly - privacy of his own bed at home. He was assaulted with a drugs cocktail, though his own daughters heard him say over and over again that he was not in any pain.

He was killed, with no access to food or fluid, when he was made deliberately unconscious, over a six day period in 2004. Three days before he finally died, so many lies were whizzing about that I became certain that he had not been dying a all. I contacted the Director of Public Health at Doncaster East PCT, for help. He referred me straight back to the doctors I was complaining about. I finally got the police out. Two officers were at the house when he died.

Since that time so many doors have been slammed in our faces that they are flat.

I have full documentary proof of what I am saying. Read some of it at Dead Man Walking

Who can offer help? The Court system has proved useless, merely covering the tracks of an assortment of 'colleagues' including South Yorkshire Police Force, South Yorkshire Police Authority and the coroner for Doncaster. I can't get legal aid and I can't afford to pay solicitors and barristers.

PS It is interesting to note that two Consultants at Doncaster Royal Infirmary were very helpful to us - until the solicitors and 'suits' put a block on further help. They both stated that my father had not been in any danger of dying. It also seems that no-one from police, coroners, NHS had contacted them at all.

[feefofum]

Hi Charlotte.
Have read your blog and would like to express my thoughts for what you and your family are going through.

I'd also like to make clear that I am NOT making any comment whatsoever on the care and staff of ANY NHS trust, specifically Doncaster as I have no experience of them whatsoever. I DO have experience of working within a hospital and I clearly see the failings of the system, but I also see that 99.9% of the people who work in a hospital are compassionate and caring, often under very difficult circumstances and through no fault of their own are unable to do their job properly. (It generally comes down to a lack of money and cohesion between departments, as well as having too many junior staff taking responsibility and not enough senior/experienced staff to hand).

My own personal bugbear is against the Government for allowing the NHS to get into such a state, but I'll save that discussion for another time.

I can't comment on your individual case Charlotte, but I wish you well in your grief and healing.

[CharlottePetersRock]

re feefofum's comment:

Yes, I agree that most people who work in the NHS do a good job. There's no argument about that. The problem is that certain people think that covering up mistakes and allowing rotten systems to continue is the only way to cope.

When an on-call doctor service is prepared to dispense 'terminal care' for the first time to a person its doctors never meet, there is something severely wrong with the system.

When this is done on the basis of lies told by a person totally medically unqualified, the system is a positive danger to its patients.

Yet, those people responsible for that system, not only are not sacked, but thrive to the point of a series of promotions; whch is what has happened in this case.

[killsville]

Thanks for the replies. Sorry I haven't replied sooner.

At the moment we're concentrating on caring for my father. He is currently receiving treatment at Sheffield's Weston Park Hospital. Doncaster Royal Infirmary would do well to take a leaf out of Weston park's book.

We're just looking for somebody to say "Sorry, we got it wrong" but we will probably have to wait until doomsday. The Solicitor did talk about going for compensation and we did say that if we ever got anything, it would be donated to Brain Tumour UK. (A charity which researches the causes and treatment of brain tumours and which receives no government support)

The doctor who examined my father when he first visited hospital was from what is called Danum Doctors. I'm not exactly certain, but I think they fill in wherever a practice or hospital department is short.

I work part time in the funeral profession and have since had dealings with Danum Doctors. I have been called a few times to collect deceased from nursing homes etc and we have not been able to move them becaused Danum Doctors have not turned up to confirm the death. It is a problem that we never have when dealing with local GP's.

The main thing that has made us so angry is that NHS Direct made what I call to be an almost correct diagnosis (in the fact that he needed a brain scan) yet the doctor was happy just to send him home.

Charlotte, I do remember some time ago, reading about your fathers case in the local paper. In fact, I believe on of your relatives lives directly across the road from me. I have just had a quick browse at the website and will have a good look through it when I get chance.

We have talked about going to the press with our story and we do of course have all the medical notes to back up our story. However, at the moment we are channeling our time into getting the best treatment.

Only after seeing how Weston Park and Royal Hallamshire Hospital operate, has our faith been restored in the NHS.