Can I claim for misdiagnosis of my condition?

[Sal0712]

I was misdiagnosed by a hospital in 2010 and told I was having a migraine, when infact I had three bloodclots on the brain which threatened to end my life. I was rushed into hospital the following day, put into a coma and pumped with various drugs and fluids to help save me. I feel that if the hospital had been a bit more vigilant the day before and maybe sent me for a brain scan, then we could have avoided some of the drastic action that had to take place. Do you think that I have a case to make a claim against the hospital ? At the time I had a ten month old daughter who ended up being separated from me for 13 days!!!

[MaryF Administrator]

Hi, there I am really sorry to hear what has happened, a familiar tale on here, formal complaints are notoriously energy sapping, myself and my children treated atrociously - the formal complaints system is slanted away from the patient and in fact the PCT's just over defend themselves and push it back on the patient, it should not be like this but it is.

I prefer to use my own previous anger and upset to re-educate my own area with relevant papers and films I can get my hands on, and of course being on here. I think the idea above of The Patients Assoc is great and if you could attach some sort of educational opportunity to this, maybe somebody would be happy to meet with you - educational resolution, just an idea. Sorry you have had such a frightful time. Mary F x

[Renae]

January 18, 2010, I was by ambulance to the hospital with stroke symptoms, they didba cat scan and said I was not having a stroke, so they pumped me fill of pain meds. I was asleep when my husband and kids took me home, they got me in bed my husband worked nights so he went to work and my teenaged daughters stayed with me. The next morning I was blue and was unresponsive, my husband called the ambulance again I was rushed back to the hospital and was on life support for 4 days. I did have a stroke, they said the real way to see a stroke is am mri and it showed a stroke. It is hard to sue a hospital.

[GinaD]

An all too similar story with me. My lingering problem is my suspicion that "It," I.e., dangerous misdiagnosis, is going to happen again. So I now take everything a doc says with, not a grain but more like a pound of salt. The trust is gone.

Sort of like a diagnosis version of PTSD. Shall we call it PDMD --Post Dangerous Misdiagnosis Disorder?

Gina

[Leigha]

When I had a stroke I could not talk so somehow drove to hospital myself - it's about 6 minutes away. Left my car with keys in ignition in front of building and stumbled in, swaying. It was a side entrance so no hospital staff was there, some visitors rushed to get some nurses and they took one look at me (I was dressed horribly, as threw on only what could see) and they treated me immediately as if I was a drug/alcoholic addict!!! My blood pressure was through the roof but, other than checking that and getting me into a gown, they left me on the cart with only a sheet covering me. Still I could not talk and was in absolute panic but also absolutely confused and disoriented. I do not drink nor use drugs at all and am a college educated past business owner. None of that matters, even if I was a drug addict I was treated worse than any human being should ever be; they taunted me, telling me to talk, to 'get with it', etc.!! They did insert an IV but only with dextrose, then they just left me.

I had to go to the bathroom, hours had passed, and I was freezing. I could finally start talking but only slurring my words and saying what would come to a very muddled mind. No one would stop by me. So I got up but by now my walking was so very unstable I had to hold on to the walls, dragging the IV pole. A nurse walked by and I asked, "bafroom?" and she pointed one direction without giving any help. Am sure I looked a mess, I was a mess! Suddenly the 2 original nurses appeared, wanting to know and I repeated, "bafroom". With that, one of the nurses grabbed the IV pole and started walking very fast down the hallway.

I could not walk very well, let alone fast, and suddenly fell backwards, right on my head - on a very hard floor!

With that I started screaming. It is not my style, but I was not myself, not at all, and I was not just being mistreated, I was being abused. The head nurse appeared and shouted at me that this was a hospital and that there were sick people here and to shut up.

Yes. That is what happened. I was helped up, somehow taken to the bathroom where a team of nurses watched me as I relieved myself and taken back. I asked for a phone, called a friend and somehow got across where I was and to come and get me immediately.

He did, and found my car still parked with keys in ignition, windows down.

Several days later I called to file a complaint and eventually found out that they (the nurses) had changed everything in my report. They wrote up the excellent care they had taken of a very belligerent patient. This is on my record to this day at this hospital. I would have to go to court to have this removed and it is my word against theirs.

Fortunately for me this was a very small stroke. It was before being diagnosed with APS and I used to get countless tia's and have had more than one stroke. I've been very lucky, but this experience taught me how horrible the medical profession can be.

Leigha

[GinaD in reply to Leigha]

Wow

Leigh. Your story beats mine,( not that this is some sort of contest.). So, do you stick your tongue out at the hospital and go " Blaugh!" when you drive past it?

Here in the States we would just sue. But could/ did they just make up records to lead people to believe they administered the correct possible stroke protocols? And, by the way, being belligerent, even if you were, does not give them a "pass" for not treating--even diagnosing--you.

So sorry to read this.

Gina

[Leigha in reply to GinaD]

Heck..... Gina and Lynn.....

I now wear a medic alert necklace. However, have been told (in ER) that what it says will be ignored and that they will follow their own procedures! This, after another admission to ER last summer. Augh! ;-( Gina, I do live in the States, in Michigan and by 2 very large hospitals. Both have very bad reputations for their emergency care, unfortunately.

Not all hospitals are like this, I know, and I would move if circumstances were different. I will say that am dealing with a health situation now and the doctors and nurses have been very nice, so not all is bad.

I do wish our medic alert necklaces were as complete as what you describe, Lynn. I list my major illnesses on mine and then it says to see wallet, where my prescriptions, etc., are now listed. For what it's worth! It does seem that Britain is doing things right.

[GinaD]

I carry a flash drive with this info. But I'm still looking for a sleeve or such to make it clear to an EMT's eye what that little pouch strapped to the outside of my pocketbook contains.( I do have a medic alert card in my wallet which reads " see flash drive on outside of purse.")

[tassie]

If I had been diagnosed 20 years earlier I wouldn't have lost so many babies but I agree it is very hard to sue drs and hospitals ... they will stick together.

I wear a medic alert bracelet with all my details but never once have the paramedics or doctors in ER looked at it ...they always insist on asking me questions and full history even though they have asked all the questions before and have it on their records. Even when i feel barely coherent and can't think they grill me and then write on my record that I am an unreliable historian ...give me a break!

It is heartbreaking to read how so many of us are treated.