Suing for medical negligance

shadesofgrey said:
Not at all. This would lead to medical records going missing all the time to stop getting caught out if something was done wrong. No?

As it stands, if they cant keep records in tact and safe, that doesn't look good does it.


Natwee, that second picture looks well odd!
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I completely agree that its unacceptable for files to be lost, but if they have been is it fair that the doctor is sued and held accountable on the basis that someone else has lost his evidence? Surely in that situation the trust should be sued as a whole for being unable to prove their doctors innocence??

Shicky said:
Granted this could be true, however at no point was I told about any emergency situation that resulted in what I've been left with. If there was and it was unavoidable, that's fine. The point is I don't know what happened, though I'd like to and the advice given in the thread will allow me to. As frankly I would just like to at least know why this happened.
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I suggest if all you want is to know the score then you should ask but to be fair your thread title suggests you want to sue. Also I really dont understand this loss of potential earnings, if my memory serves you said it was an 18 month period, obviously even if things had been straight forward you couldnt have played for 12 months and then being out for so long presumably you would have needed some time to get back to form. How many tournaments would you have played in 4-6 months?

Hawker
 
I was rushed into hospital by ambulance with acute appendicitus at 5.45am. Was in agony and couldn't eat or drink until the op, which kept getting put off for emergency procedures coming in. I had my op 13 hours later and the surgeon said he'd make the scare only as big as it need be to get the appendix out, as they all vary in size. I was left with a lumpy and numb 3" scar which kind of ruined my washboard abs (no joke) for years, as they always cramped up after about 3 crunches or so. This get it a bit 14 year later.

It was a terrible day for me. Did i think about suing? Hell no! What's the matter with you dude?! :rolleyes:

Conversely, my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the liver in Feb 2002 and given 9 months to live. So he literally cashed in his chips, sold shares etc, cashed in insurance policies blah blah.....He's still with us this day....10 years laters.
Yes the medical fraternity screwed up BIG time, but they tend to close ranks to protect each other, making it quite hard to sue in such cases of negligence. My dad didn't have the strength to fight them, so he didn't.

Try and get some perspective OP, please.
 
voodooGT said:
NHS performs potentially life saving procedure, saves your life but leaves a scar. You're alive aren't you?

It's not the doctors fault you needed your appendix out. How about you don't sue the hospital? Be thankful your alive - maybe make a donation to a local heath charity?

People who sue the NHS for medical negligence should be denied entry to all hospitals full stop!
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^ Sums up my views on the subject entirely.
 
I sued the NHS 3 times!

1st was when i shattered my ankle, i walked in the A&E and was refused to be seen as i hopped in, yet my foot was bent @ 90*!! I went from once side of town to the other due to this. I got a nice £15K on that! The fix was 14 pins, 4 plates, 2 wires and then tought how to walk again!

2nd was orthdonistc work carried out but non supervised students and work carried out not needed. I had 18 weeks of my jaw being widended which inc it being broken along the plate line. This is still an on going case for everyone by the nhs alone but have had a payout of £20k

3rd is my elbow which i ''dislocated'' at 16 when being a muppet on my moped. It was deamed an RTA and was on a MOD base where i was working on helis. I was taken to to hospital druged up and told i had a dislocation. The notes say it took 8 goes to get it back in. Over the next ten years it was never the same nor right, limited movment, imense pain, swelling, it'd never stay in place, lack of control everything wrong with it let alone a consatnt pins and needles. In the end i used the conections with MOD to get a full on medical done and use the courts to present this to the nhs. It turned out i had no elbow and it was shattered! June i had it rebuilt, which i then broke on my 1st physio treatment so went back in all within a week! Had it fixed again, felt better and its now stable but have broken part of it again. Due to them failing on the fix i got them for £50k that what the court deamed fair as i have been unable to live as i could due to the weakness. Friday it was granted a further £25K due to the instant failure post op and now a 2nd fail.

£110K currently. All bassed on the no win now fee rubbish. 30 misn of form filling, 3 calls, only once have i had to attend court which is the elbow issue. The ortho stuff is on going and rummors say a 2nd payment is on the cards!

Yet to of spent a penny of this, it's all sat in bank account
 
Beerbaron said:
do patient records ever go missing?

so basically a patients successful claim can be down to whether their records can be located or not.
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this happened to someone i knew but to do with police records
basically she was raped on the way home from work one night, called police etc etc
she then had a terrible time coming to terms with it, lost her job, flat etc and was finally admitted to mental health due to it
sorted herself out, was advised to go to criminal injuries compensation authority etc which she did, only to be told that the police had lost her file so in otherwords the event never took place and she would have to re-report the crime in order to continue her compensation claim


she never did and today she has never really got over it still and is still trying to get her life back on track

**the guy who did it was eventually caught, but only after assaulting several more women!
 
hawker1986 said:
I completely agree that its unacceptable for files to be lost, but if they have been is it fair that the doctor is sued and held accountable on the basis that someone else has lost his evidence? Surely in that situation the trust should be sued as a whole for being unable to prove their doctors innocence??
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It is very rare that an individual Clinician is sued and the Trust takes it on the chin and I don't know of one case at our Trust where it is between the patient and one Clinician.
When the Letter Of Claim is issued it is always Mr John Smith v The Hospital.
Actually the NHSLA takes it on the chin because they have all the money.

Banzai_Joe said:
Yes the medical fraternity screwed up BIG time, but they tend to close ranks to protect each other, making it quite hard to sue in such cases of negligence.
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Complete crap because when Clinical Negligence happens a lot of finger pointing goes on.
I've never seen one Health Professional trying to protect a colleague by saying something that may not be true and all of them choose their words very carefully.
 
Dimple said:
Complete crap because when Clinical Negligence happens a lot of finger pointing goes on.
I've never seen one Health Professional trying to protect a colleague by saying something that may not be true and all of them choose their words very carefully.
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And that means it doesn't happen, because you have't seen it??!
That....is complete crap!
My father went through hell because of their mistake he sought legal advice only after contacted the consultant surgeon requesting the x-rays be checked again. All of a sudden they couldn't find them.
Another person who had suffered the same misdiagnosis contacted my father as they 'lost' his x-rays too, they sought legal advice (outside of the NHS or whatever), but were advised that it wouldn't come to much and neither were in good enough health to continue the battle.

A few years later, this was compounded by the fact that i had a good friend (breast cancer surgeon) who knew the consultant concerned. The words i quoted in my post about them, "closing ranks" was my surgeon friends admission, they were his words, not mine.

I don't have a vendetta against the medical profession, they do a brilliant job, but please don't be so blinkered that you think something untowards could never happen.
Not every copper obeys the law either!
 
Banzai_Joe said:
And that means it doesn't happen, because you have't seen it??!
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I'll concede that one

Banzai_Joe said:
My father went through hell because of their mistake he sought legal advice only after contacted the consultant surgeon requesting the x-rays be checked again. All of a sudden they couldn't find them.
Another person who had suffered the same misdiagnosis contacted my father as they 'lost' his x-rays too, they sought legal advice (outside of the NHS or whatever), but were advised that it wouldn't come to much and neither were in good enough health to continue the battle.
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All I'll say is that if they have lost records then the ball is in your court.
 
Bit late to the party, but having read through the thread I don't see what the OP's problem is? I don't see any medical wrongdoing in what happened.

The reason I was given for the huge scar is that my appendix was apparently in the wrong place...over the several hours they examined me before hand, I would love to know what they were feeling and telling me it hasn't ruptured yet!
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You can't (in most cases) feel an inflamed appendix on examination. The only sign is localised pain in that area. You can feel the effects of a rupture as the patient becomes severely 'peritonitic', shocked, and generally very, very ill. If you aren't peritonitic, surgery can be delayed. Most appendix surgeries start off as a keyhole procedure, but a certain percentage revert to open procedures if there are complications or unexpected things happen (like your appendix being in the wrong place).

My friend has a 7 inch scar from an appendix operation because they found that it was in the brink of rupturing.

If you're determined to proceed, get a copy of your hospital notes. Imaging rarely shows you anything useful in appendicitis.
 
can't see any incompetence to be honest - sounds like you just got unlucky and the surgery was complicated. it happens - be glad to be alive - if it was your parents or grandparents generation you would probably be dead.
 
I can't help but think there's a bit of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" going on here.

If you go into a hospital and they plain refuse to treat you, naturally you'd be furious, I'm not saying you shouldn't be, but when the operation that they are now essentially forced to give you doesn't work out as perfectly as expected, I do not think you should be so quick to anger.

So what if the surgeon was nervous? If he's in training, he's bound to be, and they have to train people somehow. You're telling me if you were given a patient and told "be perfect or god help you", there wouldn't even be a slight bit of worry? Any other job, if you screw up there's a loss of earnings, big woop, if you screw up here, your patient is dead (or alive, but they want you dead). Even if he wasn't in training, I imagine it would take a lot of experience to get you to the point where you can just shrug it off with an "appendectomy? Meh".

I'm not saying mistakes should be easily accepted, but when you yourself are human, and you are working with the human body, nothing can ever be certain, and I think doctors do a bloody good job, and you should just be thankful to be alive. Maybe it is a big inconvenience, but it's nothing more than that, and certainly worth the trade for your life. Sure, things could've gone better, but that mistake had to happen to someone, you just got unlucky.
 
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Shicky said:
The point is I don't know what happened, though I'd like to and the advice given in the thread will allow me to. As frankly I would just like to at least know why this happened.
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Then go through the appropriate channels and do so, for example as I suggested. I would not have thought legal proceedings was the most sensible place to start. But you are clearly angling for medical negligence, through the tone of your queries and points you make- in which case so be it.
 
Think yourself lucky you are still alive and quit complaining IMO.

It's not like they cut your leg off or anything.
Life saving operation needed, life saving operation you got.
 
MrMoonX said:
how would he do it under the freedom of information act, that relates to information from public bodies not about individuals :rolleyes:

I think you mean he should make a request under the data protection act and pay £10 for a subject access request

not that he has a chance of making a claim
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:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: sorry for quoting the wrong act, in my defence i had just come off a night shift.

I do think its a bit pointless to sue if im honest OP but the reason I mention the consent is because your pretty much stuffed if it covers all of it in it as there doesnt seem to be any negligence in my opinion.. just the usual post op discomfort people will tend to get.
 
Dimple said:
All I'll say is that if they have lost records then the ball is in your court.
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Yeah, I know......sadly and truthfully just after my last post I got a phone call. My dad passed away in mum mums arms last night. Not slept much, plenty to sort out.

Treasure loved ones while you can guys. :(
 
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