Being a carer of the one you love

[Matt007]

To all of you out there caring for someone with liver disease or those going through it, it's a hard road but an informative one. I never thought that I would be sat here watching holby city understanding the terminology. Yesterday my beautiful wife had an endoscopy and all was good, today got copies of all her results from hospital and gp blood tests from last 6 months and I am no doctor but I can see what was happening. Are there any other carers, partners out there who have gone for medical compensation due to miss diagnosis as for 4 years before diagnosis of cirrhosis my wife's gp was saying that she had mental health. Any help or advice welcome

[RodeoJoe]

Cirrhosis is not really treatable in the earlier stages. So not being diagnosed won't have "harmed" her. Compensation might be difficult. Also can cirrhosis really be misdiagnosed as mental health? Perhaps it was the poor mental health which caused the life style which caused the cirrhosis?

I think consentrating on the good endoscopy is probably the thing to do, getting into legal battles with the NHS is probably the last thing either of you need to be dealing with right now as you will be relying on them in the future.

[margaretkirkman]

I am in the process of a claim for clinical negligence against my GP.

Much the same as your wife, I was increasingly unwell for almost three years, for no discernible reason. GP twice diagnosed my malaise as depression. Eventually I became so unwell, GP did blood tests. Liver function was grossly deranged and I was referred for specialist investigation. In 2012, I was diagnosed with autoimmune hep and cirrhosis and prescribed mind blowing Prednisolone and Azathioprine.

It was a shock. GP was reluctant to discuss, so I requested and paid for my patient notes.

Careful digging and cross checking with NHS A-Z of Medicine, NICE Guidelines and the British National Formulary (BNF) gave me all the answers I needed to be sure I had a valid claim for sub-standard care.

Hope this helps.

MagggieK

[Brummi]

As a carer you I am sure you are doing a wonderful job. There will be a few ups and downs but you will get through them, sometimes I am a bit mardy with mood changes in fact I get threatened with being taken back to the dogs home , but we are still together. I am sure there is a lot of help on here.

[hippoHH]

My husband was diagnosed with cirrhosis, accidently, in 2006 following a gastroscopy as he had an ulcer. I've recently looked at some GP info from 2002 and his liver function tests were abnormal then. I was angry to start with, but realise now that at the time he was being told to exercise more (which he chose not to do) and given advice about cutting down on fat which we did. However I am now convinced the cause of what was probably fatty liver, was his addiction to sugar and carbohydrate which the liver stored as fat so if we had known I don't think the dietary advice then would have helped or made any difference. It is only now that the dangers of sugar are being discussed.

Also I am a retired midwife and worked for some years privately without insurance as we couldn't access it. It amazed me how many clients were lawyers or married to lawyers. They knew how difficult it is to sue either me or the NHS.