To pursue medicolegal action?

[OzCalling]

To put a long story short about 6 months ago DD (21) went completely deaf in one ear overnight. She was misdiagnosed + dismissed by a GP and an audiologist who both said it was ‘just wax’ (even though she was still deaf when the wax was cleared!) and I ended up having to beg for a private ENT referral as we were both so concerned. The GP very reluctantly agreed but implied that the referral was unnecessary and that both DD and I were overreacting - her hearing would allegedly come back on its own.

Fast forward a week, we saw the ENT - he immediately diagnosed DD with Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss and was genuinely stunned that both a GP and an audiologist failed to recognise such big red flags. Apparently DD should’ve been sent straight to hospital and treated as an emergency. It is a very time critical condition and to have a good chance of regaining hearing high dose steroid treatment needs to start ASAP, within 48 hours of onset. Due to being dismissed, DD waited a week so as a result it was too late and the steroids didn’t work. Her hearing loss is now permanent alongside constant tinnitus.

Are we being unreasonable to contact a lawyer?

YANBU - definitely sounds like further investigation is merited. A solicitor will be able to advise you on the likelihood of success. There is quite a high test for medical negligence but based on the limited info here it certainly sounds entirely possible that the test would be met.

I hope your daughter is ok - it’s a terrible thing to have happened.

What do you want from this? Money? Or an acknowledgement of the problem? If the latter then solicitors are unnecessary.

Also, surely this is your daughter's issue to deal with - not yours. Does she actually want to pursue it?

I'm so sorry this happened. I can't say I wouldn't be considering the same if it were my daughter.

A hospital made some very serious (and frankly bafflingly stupid) errors a year or two ago, meaning that my parent's cancer was left to spread. It was a series of these errors, the silliest of which was biopsying the wrong lump, in spite of my father telling them they'd got it wrong.

He just wanted to make sure it didn't happen to anyone else. He complained, but didn't sue. Hospital policies and procedures were improved and some staff were given extra training.

For him (and us, for that matter) this was the ideal outcome. Money wasn't going to fix the problem. In the long term, getting compensation would leave the NHS poorer, meaning worse outcomes for other patients. This approach left the NHS (well, that hospital) in a better state, meaning better outcomes for other patients.

I wouldn't want to suggest it's always wrong to sue the NHS. But I think it's never a straight win, and is usually a complicated question.

Of course it’s DD’s decision/issue - she’s the one that has been considering it as after all she’s the one having to deal with the lifelong problems that this whole situation has caused. The impact on her social and work life has been huge. I’m simply trying to help her out and gauge whether compensation is worth pursuing or not.

I don't think you'd be unreasonable to seek legal advice.
Whilst it is true that financial compensation won't fix the problem it may help to manage the situation by funding ongoing care. For example I don't know if a hearing aid can help this type of deafness but if that's the case it may well be that much better models are available privately, or if there are other treatments that might help, even if the NHS does offer them your DD may prefer to have them privately to speed things up. And could her hearing loss have any impact on her career and hence future earnings? It's those sort of things that will influence the value of any compensation.
Losing a significant amount of your hearing and being left with tinnitus at such a young age is a really awful thing to have happened and knowing that it was potentially avoidable must be incredibly upsetting for your DD. I have tinnitus following a head injury some years ago and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I feel so sorry for her facing these problems at such a young age and through no fault of her own. If she hasn't already formally complained to the GP and audiologist I think she should definitely do that first as there's clearly a lesson to be learned, but I do think that it sounds like financial compensation could be appropriate too.

True . The hospital will not deal with anyone but the patient unless they lack capacity. Comes under the patient confidentiality umbrella.

Very much aware of this - I’m a HCP too.

Monkey would help if her daughter's condition can be improved (via a hearing aid for example) and/or ongoing medical care is needed.

I'm sure OP know it's her daughter's decision and case (if she pursues one), that doesn't mean she can't ask for advice/opinions.

I would in this instance seek legal advice. It seems like a strong case, NHS likely to settle:

https://www.fieldfisher.com/en/injury-claims/insights/patients-left-deaf-following-wrong-treatment-for-acute-sensorineural-hearing-loss

There's no shame at all in wanting financial recompense although of course it will not change the outcome.

Two professionals reached the same diagnosis. It doesn't seem unreasonable that they both went for the obvious option of earwax.

In order for your daughter to succeed in any claim, she would need to prove that they acted in a way that no professional hcp was likely to do and would need to set a value on her loss and how it was calculated.

Negligence is a high bar. The NHS cannot provide excellent care to an individual as the standard - it provides adequate care to all and that, by necessity, means that some people don't get the best care that they could. I know that seems unfair but in the world of negligence claims you need to prove that the care wasn't just inadequate or not of a high enough standard, but was a course of action or judgement that no other reasonable HCP would have taken.

Ultimately the GP did listen and make a referral and as awful as the outcome is for your daughter, she will struggle to prove negligence. You would be better focused on helping her deal with her hearing loss and moving on. Negligence claims are stressful, protracted and difficult to prove in many cases and you shouldn't underestimate the disruption they cause.

Out of interest did they do any tests with a tuning fork during the examination? Would have been placed on the head then behind each ear/asking about which side is loudest/when it stops?