To want to sue the NHS for not diagnosing Autism

[HufflePuffllePuff]

DC had full assessment at age 11, told did not have ASD. Assessment was a 2 years to wait, should have been referred earlier but school negligent and wouldn't refer.

Later reassessed at age 17 (after another 2 year wait) and told clearly does have ASD.

That they didn't get a diagnosis at age 11 (just started secondary school) has had a massive impact on education and has led to where we are now. No qualifications, no skills, no hope of a job, debilitating mental health issues, no living skills, spends most of the day in bed, won't go out due to social anxiety.

Now I can understand that in some people ASD is diagnosed late as it hasn't been picked up on.

This was though.

I knew from around age 2 but HV fobbed me off. GP said school must refer when issues started immediately after they started. School refused to refer until they were 9 because they decided he was immature and naughty.

Full assessment was done at age 11 but was told they 'didn't meet criteria' and why did I want a label anyway <side eye>. At 17, doc said he was very surprised at previous conclusion.

3 year time limit to sue is very close.

Would you?

You are angry. So were my parents. It was heartbreaking for my parents to be repeatedly told that my brother did not have autism. You can imagine how it rocked their whole world and how they sobbed when he was finally diagnosed aged 28, when he was in a secure unit.

I don’t think you should sue and I think you should get some counselling to move on.

Your son doesn’t have a hopeless future. Please believe in him. You will make him
feel even worse if he knows thats what you think of him (what you wrote in op) Change your mindset and release yourself from the bitterness of ‘what could have been’ focus on the now.
Start slowly - what is he interested in? Build a strong bond and build up his confidence.

There are so many things he could do. Would he be interested in volunteering at a therapy farm for example. Can he use his computer skills. Make a plan together if he is up for it.

My own son is nearly 7 and thankfully diagnosed at 4. We home educate him because he is too anxious to attend school. He has many comorbid diagnoses too- dyslexia, dysgraphia etc. He is also extremely violent towards us all and self harms. We have had no help what so ever except for 6 zoom calls with a lovely clinical psychologist!

But we celebrate the small things! One day he will find his way and so will your son.

Speaking purely objectively OP…

1. can you demonstrate that no reasonable doctor would have made the same decision? If it slipped through the net so many times, it seems unrealistic to think that there was negligence and more likely that he just didn’t sufficiently meet the criteria at the time.

2. can you demonstrate that a diagnosis would have changed the outcome? You have your report, but a joint report and/or counter report could say otherwise, as ASD leads to poorer outcomes generally. My DB has autism and I have ADHD, and both of us faced some struggles with schooling (although I did go on to become a lawyer and oddly found my focussed ADHD incredibly helpful with my career as I love my work!)

3. as PPs have said, he can sue up until his 21st birthday.

I don’t think you’re likely to succeed based on the above and you probably won’t be able to get any public funding for the claim. However, I would speak to a solicitor to get a more definitive view before you make that decision. (I don’t work in medical negligence, I’m in a totally different field so I’m basing this on my sixth month stint in clin neg over 15 years ago when things were probably very different!)

I understand why you are angry, I've had a very similar experience with my dd, however I'm not sure it would be worth your time and energy to sue.

I'm also not sure if a diagnosis would have changed anything for your Ds sadly, the support for autistic teens is absolutely woeful.

No.

This. Exactly this.

The criteria changes. It may be if your DS was assessed with earlier criteria he still would not meet the diagnosis.

Op having read your updates, the school failed your son, not the NHS.

Sounds like you need closure? Suck it up and accept it is not a helpful message if you have watched a child suffer for years.

Are there other ways you can process this and feel a sense of resolution? Write down their story and discuss it with your MP? Write to the NHS Chief Exec/DfE and DHSC Secretaries of State and ask what they are doing to stop kids falling through the net? Sometimes you just need to do something...

To sue for negligence the question surely needs to be were they negligent?

It sounds like they completed an appropriate assessment following their pathway.

They gathered information from different sources including school and completed the standard assessment ADOS.

They scored this, scoring is standardised but is based on observation and recording by an examiner.

Usually this evidence (ADOS + gathered info) is then checked against the DSM V criteria to see if it meets the threshold for diagnosis (often by a multi disciplinary team).

At which point in the process do you feel they were negligent? Negligence needs them to have broken their duty of care and unless you can show that they didn't follow the assessment process correctly or mis-scored the ADOS / incorrectly applied the DSM V criteria I think you will really struggle.

I am sorry because it sounds like you've had a really shit time and school have been terrible and unsupportive but I don't think you will get far trying to sue the NHS unless they didn't follow the guidelines. It will just be another stress for you trying.

I think its a really bad idea sorry. You still haven't said how you'd prove negligence. You can't turn up and offer current ASD diagnosis as proof of negligence. Even if you could prove liability how would you measure quantum of loss?

What law firm is going to take you on?. Medical negligence lawyers don't work for free. You realise that right? Please be wary of dodgy NWNF lawyers and litigation insurance or contracts that land you with huge costs because you'd be very naive. Of course you may be rich and self funding which is still a good way to waste £££.

Just placemarking to read later as been through the same but worse

Personally with their army of lawyers, specialists etc, you would most likely not succeed.

I think your justifiably angry the system failed you and your son, like it does so many SEND parents. But suing them would be unlikely to be successful and give you the vindication you need. More likely it would be more stress, and further upset. A diagnosis would in no way have guaranteed an EHCP.
Im so sorry you’ve experienced this, school are as much to blame. It’s the whole system I’d be campaigning and fighting against, not this one mid diagnosis which will be impossible I imagine to prove is negligent - enough to compensate for the real life failures he experienced.

*you’re

I think you should. Time and time again kids are being left to suffer on waiting lists and we’re all expected to just suck it up. Diagnosis should be faster. Nothing will change if we keep accepting it. However it will be stressful.

No. YABVU.

I’m a doctor and have no issue with people
suing the health service or individual doctors. It’s one way of forcing change (not the only way, and it comes at a high cost to everyone involved including plaintiffs). I actually laughed at the posts asserting the health service and drs are
‘golden’ and protected - not my experience
at all. It would surprise me if those posters faced the same personal and professional consequences for errors at work as health care workers do.

But nobody here can tell you if you have a case, and against whom. Go to a solicitor. You can think about whether you would take action once you know more. It’s not as straightforward as an incorrect (if it was - presentations evolve
over time and six years between assessments is a big gap) diagnosis = negligence and that negligence then = damage for which compensation can be sought. The law is always much more complex than that.

I’d also be very wary of pinning every difficulty that your DS has now on his diagnosis for autism. And seeing all past difficulties as autism. I’ve said it before, but autistic diagnosis are now very stretched and cover a very wide criteria. And your description of your son when young sounds exactly like my DS with ADHD (who did run around in circles blowing raspberries, which is more ADHD than autism stimming).

In the future there will be a greater understanding that there are so many variations both within autism and also with other co occuring traits.

Like others have said, you are pinning way too much of the diagnosis as being of real weight. Most people do not have a social worker (we do not and my DS has been classed as ‘severely autistic’ for years), I get almost nothing. He does go to a specialist school but in no way would he have ever been able to cope with mainstream. There was no grey area. Couldn’t have got him in the door.

I would give full details to a specialist solicitor specialising in negligence. Consider both the schools, council and the NHS actions.

Most civil lawsuits for injuries allege the wrongdoer was negligent. To win in a negligence lawsuit, the victim must establish 4 elements: (1) the wrongdoer owed a duty to the victim, (2) the wrongdoer breached the duty, (3) the breach caused the injury (4) the victim suffered damages.

So no, the NHS does not meet the definition of negligence in this case.

If you thought your child was affected from the age of 2, yet wasn't diagnosed at 11, why were you not fighting it then?

Negligence requires there to be no other doctor who'd have done what your specific doctor did. That's very, very unlikely to be the case here.

I was fobbed off by several doctors who thought I was too young to be seriously ill, and ended up having to have a total hysterectomy in my early 30s that could've been prevented had one of them taken me seriously. I consulted a solicitor and they said even that would be challenging as you'd need to establish that one of them did something no doctor would've done in their position. It was arguably reasonable for each of them to reach the conclusion they did, even if it was unfair and led to a horrific outcome.

It's a very high bar for a reason. Maybe try and get a free consult with a clin neg solicitor but I really doubt this has got legs.

I am in a similar position with my DS. Lots of signs of ASD from a very early age but all my concerns were dismissed until he was much older. Shortly after I was also diagnosed - do I claim for myself too? I'm sorry but if everyone who received a wrong diagnosis tried to sue the NHS there would be no money left to pay the doctors.

Right. That obviously makes it perfectly OK for them to screw up people's lives on a regular basis. Your attitude is exactly why the NHS gets away with treating lots of people like inconvenient lumps of meat. If they were held accountable a bit more then standards of care would probably be a lot higher!

No, I think it's unethical to sue the NHS in general.

I was diagnosed at 27 with a serious illness I'd had since 16 (bipolar) then later ADHD (37).