Suing the hospital for telling me I had cancer?

[MoralityPondering]

Can I? Should I? Family and friends are telling me to. I was diagnosed 2 months ago at a private hospital after MRI & biopsy. 3 surgeries later and now last week I've been told it isn't cancer at all. They had it looked at 3 times to decide it wasn't cancer so it doesn't seem to be a straight forward decision. I'm not sure it's the right thing to do anyway. I just feel how I did when I was diagnosed - like my life has been ripped apart again.

I spent 12 months watching people die , some of them gasping for breath pleading with me to save their lives. I've had to listen to their relatives screaming down the phone. I've had to do last offices for two of my friends and colleagues. I've seen cancer victims die in absolute agony, despite all the drugs we gave them so yes, perhaps my take is different.

You work with dying people yet have absolutely no fucking understanding or empathy?

And to be told you're OK and that you're not going to die is something to be grateful for. An awful lot of people weren't that lucky.

Ah, now I'm quite sure OP is grateful to be alive. That doesn't eliminate her trauma though.

But hey, what would I know !.

Not very much apparently

You absolutely should pursue this.
I had breast cancer ( now fully recovered) but can categorically confirm the worst part, worse that the surgery or treatment, was having to tell my family, my children, friends and work and managing all of their panic, grief and anxiety on top of my own.
You still went through that even though in your case it turns out it was in vain.
I also recommend seeking specialist counselling for this, you have been through a massive life event.

@CharlotteUnaNatalieThompson excellent post and EXCELLENT name!

Just to echo what previous posters have said about getting a proper debrief and talking the treatment through would be really helpful (I appreciate this might be tricky if the consultants have gone to ground about it though) and then decide what you want to do after that.

It's a lot for you to take in, in a short space of time. Don't feel you have to make an instant decision about anything but do press for a proper debrief

I have no idea about the steps you should take but I'm really sorry that you went through this. I would be absolutely furious if I was in your shoes and if someone is at fault then I would want them to pay for what they have done to me in some way.

[quote harriethoyle]@CharlotteUnaNatalieThompson excellent post and EXCELLENT name![/quote]
Why thank you 🤣😉

@peachcherries

I'm sorry but I would say absolutely not. Money doesn't fix the emotional rollercoaster you've been on.

An investigation will be done and the findings will be reported back to you, but suing gets you nowhere in my opinion.

My pancreatic biopsy was lost and I had to have it taken a again, which was just awful. An investigation was launched and the trust acknowledged a mistake was made and lessons were learnt.

Leave it all behind you and be grateful it was a mistake!

Money would allow OP to access as much counselling as she needs and to fund any future treatment that is necessary to enable her to come to terms with this.

@MoralityPondering you’ve been through an enormous ordeal, exacerbated by the error in diagnosis. I totally get that you feel very vulnerable and disturbed by this. I agree with other PP that you need a debrief and counselling to come to terms with this. Legal action can perhaps be put aside for the moment until you have more information.

You say you’re having trouble arranging to see your surgeon, another idea might be to see your GP and ask them for advice. Firstly, this will probably happen soon and that will help your state of mind and secondly they will have received some information from the hospital which might help start this process of understanding what happened. They might also be able to advise on your best course of action in terms of getting a debrief.

I’m sure you will come to terms with this, it will take a little time though. Equally, suing may be the right decision if incompetence was involved, but I don’t think you know that yet.

@Pyewackect

I spent 12 months watching people die , some of them gasping for breath pleading with me to save their lives. I've had to listen to their relatives screaming down the phone. I've had to do last offices for two of my friends and colleagues. I've seen cancer victims die in absolute agony, despite all the drugs we gave them so yes, perhaps my take is different. And to be told you're OK and that you're not going to die is something to be grateful for. An awful lot of people weren't that lucky.

But hey, what would I know !.

I get to be grateful that I don't have cancer WHILST being upset that I had a load of invasive and unnecessary treatments. Especially if I went through all of that because of human error.

Jesus Christ Ivy48. OP has HAD A BREAST REMOVED. Do you have any idea of the severity of that? How life altering it is?

And your advice is to "count herself lucky"?

So sorry this has happened OP. I hope you're able to get some sound advice and look to the future soon

OP, i would definitely be upset if i had gone through not only being told i had cancer, but extensive surgery to remove it, which is pretty life changing lets face it, to then be told oh sorry we got it wrong.

Of course you can be happy that its not cancer, but concerned about how they got it so far wrong!

I dont know whether i would sue, it would probably for me depend on how that mistake was made - if it was genuinely them trying their absolute best and genuinely believing it was cancer and wanting to save your life, i dont know that i would, but then again it has put you through unneccesary trauma no matter how the decision was made. If it was negligence, then i would be seriously considering it yes.

@Babyroobs

My sister in law had this- she was told she had firstly Ovarian cancer then uterine cancer and then that it was a condition which behaves like a cancer but isn't ! She was just relieved, it never crossed her mind to sue to be honest.

Was she operated on and had the relevant body parts permanently removed through surgery?

@Pyewackect

I spent 12 months watching people die , some of them gasping for breath pleading with me to save their lives. I've had to listen to their relatives screaming down the phone. I've had to do last offices for two of my friends and colleagues. I've seen cancer victims die in absolute agony, despite all the drugs we gave them so yes, perhaps my take is different. And to be told you're OK and that you're not going to die is something to be grateful for. An awful lot of people weren't that lucky.

But hey, what would I know !.

not enough clearly - presumably you're medical staff so you should have a bloody good understanding about how this might affect someone mentally, and you should have a considerable amount more empathy than you are currently showing!

I could have sued the hospital after it left me with needing surgery and nearly caused the death of my next baby and me. I thought about it for about three seconds and decided not to as the fact the saved my first born meant more to be than an operation I shouldn't have had and my next baby and I lived. If I was you I'd be grateful I didn't have cancer but would make sure there was an official complaint in the hope it would never happen again. I'd also need it on my notes so if there were any consequences I wouldn't be missed or left too long.

@Pyewackect, you might have been the witness of all that but actually you still don’t know.
Because you haven’t lived through that, u like the OP.

And even if you had, your experience is likely to have been very different.

So stop thinking you know best, and try empathy instead.

@Pyewackect

I spent 12 months watching people die , some of them gasping for breath pleading with me to save their lives. I've had to listen to their relatives screaming down the phone. I've had to do last offices for two of my friends and colleagues. I've seen cancer victims die in absolute agony, despite all the drugs we gave them so yes, perhaps my take is different. And to be told you're OK and that you're not going to die is something to be grateful for. An awful lot of people weren't that lucky.

But hey, what would I know !.

What absolute crap. I've seen thousands of people die, some of them horribly. It doesn't mean that I've lost the ability to empathise with people like the OP who have suffered lesser, but still major, misfortunes. When I have to tell someone in A&E that they have lost a leg, I don't add, 'But it could have been your head, so cheer up".

Either your empathy has been seriously blunted by emotional trauma, in which case you need to seek help urgently, or you are a twat.

Do you have solid evidence that they were negligent and that no competent medical professional would have made the same mistake? Otherwise I'm not sure what you'll be suing them for.

I'm so sorry, I should have read further. I'm so sad for you that you have gone through all this. I still think not to sue but definitely a full and honest debrief is needed.

Well, they took it very seriously and felt they were acting in your best interest. You may wish to sue if it was the other way round, a missed cancer diagnosis, but personally I would let it sink in and be deeply thankful for their concern and the fact that you have escaped a terribly cruel disease

@MoralityPondering Being told you have a life limiting illness is a massive thing to deal with, being told at a later date that you don't is equally massive so please don't be hard on yourself about all the emotions you are going through, they are completely understandable. I hope you find the answers you need and, of course, if mistakes have been made you deserve compensation, if only to meet any future costs arising from these unnecessary surgeries.

I’m so sorry you’ve had such a traumatic experience.

It would be worth speaking to a solicitor. However, just because there was a misdiagnosis doesn’t mean negligence has occurred - it is possible for a medical professional to follow usual practice and things still go wrong. A solicitor specialising in clinical negligence claims can advise you on whether it seems likely that there was negligence in this case, and your likely prospects of success.

I hope that whatever happens you’re able to move on from this

Definantly worth pursuing with a medical lawyer, as you’ve had significant surgery, stress and worry. Had they told you from the outset it could be an alternative diagnosis, fair enough. Have you got copies of all your hospital letters?

I think being sick, going through treatment and then going into remission and being glad/grateful for that, is completely different to never having been sick at all, and having surgery that is needlessly risky, has caused scars and left an implant to look after.

Imagine losing an arm and then being told it never needed to be removed! It’s life-changing.

I've had breast cancer so I have some knowledge of what that feels like.
I have very small breasts and had a WLE (lumpectomy).
One thing you have said that stands out is that you had full node clearance? I had a sentinal node biopsy where they take one or two nodes for testing. In my case the nodes were negative but only if they had been positive would they have operated again to do full node clearance.

Other than that I wonder if there was a mix up with the biopsy results and they looked at someone elses? That would be very bad news for that other person.......

I agree you need a review of what happened and why and how this problem was missed and yes worth talking to a solicitor definitely.

Perhaps they will operate when there's a margin of error on diagnosis because they have to make a call with what information they have and that's just the way it is, perhaps what you had is super unusual, or perhaps balls were dropped. I'd want to know!

If a hospital fucks up of course it's reasonable to seek reparation. My aunty had breast cancer but due to a fuck up in mastectomy surgery was left with a permanent if comparatively "minor" disability affecting movement and sensation in her arm. She gave it a lot of thought and whilst her life had been saved she is now on lifetime medication and has impairment and so did settle out of court with NHS. The money helped her reduce her work hours and get modified car and it seemed fair enough to me.