To sue or not to sue?

[redjelly]

This is a long story so I will try and be as brief as possible...

Basically, I have a medical condition that has left me very poorly for over a year. Although doctors diagnosed early on what the problem was, they made several mistakes, gave me the wrong treatment and have caused many delays. They refused to believe how ill I said I was and told me most of my symptoms were caused by depression (sessions of therapy showed in fact that I was in excellent mental health) which has since been proved to be untrue - all symptoms were due to my medical condition. I was refused referral to specialists for six months and only when I threatened legal action and was finally examined properly the full extent of the damage of my illness was made clear.

I have taken legal advice and as I have written proof and evidence, I am told that if I were to make a claim against the NHS, I would definately get a large payout.

I am a single mother who had a successful freelance career. For the last year I have been in hospital for a total of six weeks, been unable to walk far and use a stick to walk, unable to drive and unable to work as my eyesight is now very poor. I will require 3 operations and it will take several months to regain my health and I am told the battering my body has taken will shorten my life expectancy by between 5 and 10 years.

What I want is my health and my life back. I want an apology for the mistakes and the manner in which I was treated. I want to know what they are going to do to make sure this does not happen again.

So do I sue?

Arguements against it is that while financially it has been a struggle, I managed and when I am well again I should be able to go back to work as normal. I want to get on with my life and do not fancy a long and drawn out legal battle. I do not like the idea that people sue everyone these days and mistakes just happen sometimes, money won't fix it. I am uncomfortable with taking money from the NHS.

Arguements for it are that this has been the most awful time and I have been almost housebound for a year which need not have been the case if I had had the right treatment. My children have suffered from me being unable to look after them and our home well during this time and for some time to come yet. This should not have happened, the medical professionals in my care made several awful mistakes in treating me. I lost my income and many work opportunities at an important time in my career. The money would allow me to pay off most of my mortgage and set me and my sons up in a financially good position for the future.

So, what would YOU do? x

be aware that a lot will hinge on independent medical opinion if you do go down the suing route - so although the solicitors you have seen seem very positive, you are nowhere near home and dry yet.

Well from you say I think you should investigate suing. Because you were not taken seriously you have suffered pain, your children have suffered from not being looked after and probably very very worried about you, you have suffered more financially than you wuold have had you been diagnosed and treated before and it has cut your life expectancy because of the delay?

But it will be a hard slog.

Hmmm

I still fail to see the negligence in your treatment. It can take sometimes up to and over 3 years to settle a case like this, although I'm sure your firm would endeavour to settle in less than one year. Claims against the NHS litigation authority only succeed rarely and often only when true negligence is proven and admitted. Medical experts rarely give opinions that will be damning to their own 'colleagues' unless the case is very clear. Even cases where metal instruments were left inside patients during ops for example causing massive long term problems sometimes do not succeed.
I see that you had a long delay and were patronised and you encountered some less than useful professionals along the way, and have had a really horrible time, but it doesn't sound as if what they did was textbook wrong .. I would only sue if you are prepared to lose, and would only sue if you are prepared to attend a number of medical appointments with experts and meetings with solicitors, bare all the details and still potentially not win. There was no negligence in my opinion and it will have no effect whatsoever on future care. Ensure that you are on a no win no fee agreement, read the small print, check what the success fee would be.

Hi there. I am a doctor so be able to help a little.

On the face of what you say it all sounds like you were badly mistreated and misdiagnosed. However to prove negligence (and therefore get a big payout) you would have to be able to prove not just that the diagnosis was missed and that you were given the wrong treatment, but that also other doctors would have done differently (ie determined the diagnosis and treatment correctly given what information your doctors had). Clearly this is not always easy to ascertain. For example if you had a common easy to identify problem (lets say you had a breast lump (for the sake of using a problem I deal with all the time) and despite the fact that you were in the right age group for it to be a cancer (lets say 50-60 years) and it was getting bigger your GP refused to refer you leading to a delay in treatment and a reduced chance of cure because it was therefore picked up at a more advanced age. I think most doctors wouldn't make that mistake and therefore finding that your GP was negligent would be likely. Now lets change the scenario to a 20 year old girl with a lump in her breast that is changing in size with her periods and a bit tender. GP refuses referral to a specialist as its unlikely to be cancer. However it subsequently is found to be a breast cancer and she has the same delay in treatment as the other lady. It would be hard to prove negligence in this case as although the outcome is the same in both cases, the second situation is SO unlikely to be a cancer that the second GP may not be found guilty of negligence as a lot of other Gps would have done the same thing.

Does this long winded explanation help? basically what I am trying to say is that if the problem you have is common and should have been picked up you are likely to suceed if you were to sue. If it is in fact very rare and depression is a much more common reason for all the symptoms you describe then you may not. It is also a sad fact that a lot of conditions (some of which are serious or life threatening) are not always easy to spot and it can take some time and also seeing that treatments you would expect to work don't to get to the diagnosis. Of course it is always easy with hindsight to think it was obvious at the time but it might well be that unfortunately for your condition this kind of route to the diagnosis is not uncommon.

Not trying to say you shouldn't or should sue. Just trying to explain a bit in the hope of helping you. I think to be honest if you had a common condition that should have been spotted and the delay in treatment has had financial implications (without finding negligence you would only get compensation for this) I think you should pursue this IF you think it would help your peace of mind. If on the other hand you have a very rare condition and it is not uncommon to have these sort of delays (so dr unlikely to be found negligent and so big payouts not likely) and the financial loss as a result was only small you may well put yourself through a lot of aggro for little return.

I would second an independent medical opinion to determine this as well as further legal advice.

Good luck moving forward with your life regardless of what you decide

Sorry for all the typos and such a long winded post!

I don't agree. What is suing going to accomplish?

You have not articulated the biggest argument for starting an action, which is that by starting an action, you will compel the authorities to take action which will prevent anyone else from suffering the mistreatment that you have suffered.

I personally would only take an action if I were convinced that there had indeed been a level of misunderstanding or mistreatment, and that this had materially contributed to my health.

Thank you for all the answers, as the initial anger at the treatment is subsiding and I get more opinions I am starting to see what I really want to do.

Money is not the issue here, wanting an apology and assurances that efforts will be made to stop this mistake happening to the next person is what is needed. I doubt I will get either but throwing my toys out of the pram and demanding money won't make me feel any better at all. I know that at least one doctor was negligent and that I can prove it but I would never be comfortable with taking money from the NHS. I will get more satisfaction from getting my health back and financially getting back on my feet by myself.

Thanks once again for all your opinions x

Redjelly - have you made a formal complaint about your care ? Start by contacting the practice manager at your GPs and then contact the patient advocate/advice service at your trust. A formal complaints procedure will certailnly force the issues to be looked at and may give you the apology and assurances that you need. I mad e aformal complaint about my post natal care and it was actulaly extremely cathartic and I know for a fact that a new policy was drawn up with regards to the complication that i had, which was woefully undermanaged.

Excellent post from alicet... I think the picture she paints should sway you one way or the other. Is it a rare condition, that would be unlikely, or a common illness that any doctor would have spotted normally?

It is not a very common illness, the consultant at my local hospital would see about 2 cases a month. However, diagnosis was not in doubt, they diagnosed the condition early on but prescribed the wrong medication and did not take into account symptoms that showed I was experiencing complications that are common with the condition at an acute stage.

OP - I had a relative who sued the NHS for a botched operation (where a life-threatening mistake was made). The relative wasn't interested in a payout but wanted an apology, as they have a long-term chronic condition and had lost faith in the medical profession as a result of the mistake. The relative is a left-wing, supporter of public health services, and is not a callous money-grabbing ambulance chaser. It was more about the lack of faith that such a terrible cock-up could actually happen.

However, the NHS (IME) will NOT apologise as their lawyers advise them not to BECAUSE of the danger of litigation that comes from admitting liability. So even if you just want an apology, you probably will be waiting a long time........

And also (I am not a lawyer) but I think that the payout would not relate to loss of earnings etc etc for the CONDITION, but any worsening of the condition as a result of the mis-diagnosis. Despite my relative being put in a life-threatening condition as a result of the medical mistake (they very nearly died - and would have done so if the mistake had not been noticed for a few more hours), they did not receive a HUGE payout because they had a pre=existing medical condition which meant they couldn't work so had no loss of earnings!