*Should I make an official complaint or sue the NHS?*

[simone123456789]

My daughter hurt her leg whilst trampolining, she couldnt walk, I took her to the hospital (saturday) where many doctors and nurses examined my daughter. I was questioned about being a single first time mum and then told she was fine and to take her back in a few days if she wasnt any better. I then took my daughter back on the monday, she was given 2 lots of xrays first on her hip and top of he leg and then on her knee and bottom half of her leg. I was told her leg was fine and again was sent home. I then recieved a phone call from the hospital on the wednesday, it was the hospital calling to say that they had misread the xray and that infact my 3 year old daughter had fractured her leg. I took her straight back to the hospital and her leg was put in a temporary half cast. I was told to take her back the following monday for more xrays, I did so, my daughter was not given any more xrays and her leg was put in a full plaster. Since, many people have told me that I should make an official complaint or sue the hospital/nhs due to my daughter being left untreated for 5 days which could have made her injury worse. Does anyone think I have a case? Polite replies appreciated, thankyou.

I do understand about the questioning, when DS1 broke his elbow DH stayed home with DS2 and his brother took us in. I felt like I got a few raised eyebrows when I pointed out DBil wasn't his father but his 'uncle'. If you want a further explanation you can ask at clinic but to sue would take all the health care professionals away from their day jobs seeing other patients for a good few hours at least without changing anything.

It's a hard line to follow, reducing radiation to a young patient vs x-raying straight away. Sorry, it's very hard to explain via a forum how complex all the decisions that go on.

...but how is taking money away from the NHS going to aid in training etc?

I wasn't questioning your salary, btw and erm, your welcome

Perhaps you need to go and ask someone to explain exactly what happened and why. At least that would clear up any confusion.

Imho you sue if significant harm was done by the NHS. I know treatment was delayed and Nursery etc, it must be distressing. I know of a family that was falsley accused of mounchousens by proxy, they were cleared and the hospital critised by the court, a childs treatment was withdrawn, the childs long term health has been effected. I can see why that family are sueing.

Dd hurt herself on a trampoline. A&E gave me the third degree about how it happened, thankfully we had all the relevant safety features in place such as her beng the only person on the trampoline etc.

The A&E consultant read the X-ray but admitted he couldn't be sure and asked us to return in 10 days. It was difficult to tell due to her age and growing plates on her bones.

By all means contact PALs as they can all you through what happened and they can deal with anything that wasn't done well. Please don't sue or make a formal complaint until you have the facts

A formal complaint will stress the staff, take up valuable time that could be better spent on patent care.

(youonlysingwhenyourwinning) I have not said that I am actually going to sue!!!!! I have simply just said thats what other people have said I should do. What I have said is that I will definately be making a complaint as I do not believe my daughter was given the care that she needed at the hospital. I do not believe that any other honest loving parent would not do the same.

Sorry cross posted with you, the procedures are in place to see that things aren't missed, that's what happened. The technology is amazing but the world of medicine isn't black and white unfortunately, it is an art not a science and even after 20 years I still see something new everyday.

If you look back at my posts simone, I actually agreed with you on the complaint.

I also sympathised regarding the questioning (though I still believe it is a good thing, I can just understand how thoroughly unpleasant it can be).

You appear to be getting exasperated with me simone. I'm not sure why.

I don't think you should sue. That's my opinion.
I totally sympathise with you though and wish your daughter well.

I really do understand how distressing this must be for you and why you think your child was neglected but just a few points

You say "it wasn't a specialist that noticed, it was a junior doctor"
I'm afraid that shows you misunderstand the system. Your daughter will have been seen in A&E by an A&E doctor who could have been brand new ie started work as a doctor atthebegginning of AUG or been a consultant who's been practicing for decades or anything in between. Depending on there experience they would/may ask for more senior advice.
After her X-ray would then not have been looked at again untill reviewed and reported by a specialist radiologist (who may be a senior specialist trainee or a consultant).

"Sureley a fully qualified doctor should know whether a leg is broken or not"
I can understand why you might think that but it's not always that simple. Fractures especially in children can be very difficult to spot unless significantly displaced. Thats why we have specialists to report these things. The radiologist reporting will have had at least 4 year post grad training.

"I'm not asking about seeing because I'm after money"
Well in that case don't sue. The only reason to sue is financial. If you want your daughters case to be reviewed and any changes to the system made that may be needed then complain to the hospital and they can review their systems and act but to be honest (and I know this isn't what you want to hear) it sounds like their systems work. The doctor who sent your DD home without an X-ray and the one who missedthefracture will already have been spoken too I would imagine but they would've involved as well and training provided if needed.

Sorry that last sentence should read:
The doctor who sent your DD home without an X-ray and the one who missed the fracture will already have been spoken too I would imagine (and if theyhavnt they should be) and training provided if needed.

2am left handed posting!

I would start with PALS and see if you can get a better idea of what actually happened. There may be grounds for a complaint, and they can advise you how to go about that.

It is perfectly possible to go through PALS, make a complaint and then sue as well. There are some time limits but I don't think that should be a problem. In the UK you can only sue for actual harm caused, so you'd need medical evidence that the delay made the outcome of the fracture worse for your dd. The claim would be handled at a national level as claims for the NHS are pooled and they take a very long time. If your primary wish is for answers, an apology and perhaps some changes to practice then the PALS/complaint route is more likely to do so.

What nooka said. Suing is done for compensation of an actual loss and it would be very difficult to prove that your dd has suffered such a loss, i.e. that she suffered permanent harm which would not have happened if they had treated her straightaway. You would also have to prove that the failure to treat was due to unacceptable negligence, not just to a genuine mistake. Misdiagnosis can and does happen: if we sued our doctors every time, there would be no money left for treatments.

I am pretty convinced that my dd has suffered permanent mental and physical harm from the clueless doctor who diagnosed her connective tissue disorder as psychosomatic and forced her to "push against the pain". We are still dealing with the fall-out 8 years later. But it would be absolutely impossible to prove which parts of dd's undeniably poor health are due to this and which parts could have been caused by other factors, and it would be a dreadful waste of my resources to spend them on this when I could be propping dd up and helping her to move on.

PALS seem a much better option.

My DD hurt her foot, had an x-ray and was told it was just bruised.

About 10 days later got a call to say her x-ray had been re-checked and her foot was fractured. She then had the appropriate treatment.

It's very common to miss fractures and is the reason why x-rays are checked by a specialist before being filed away.

It is unfortunate but happens fairly often.

I know this isn't really getting at your exact question but I read something in a hospital a while ago which said that if a child presents with bruises, possible fractures etc, the staff have to almost make the assumption that the parent is responsible. This is not going to reassure you at all and ofcourse your daughter's injury was sustained on the trampoline. We must remember though that baby P, the little girl with the Colombie name and so on and so on have been failed by our medical services/authorities and of course their carers. I think this explains why we feel we are being "interrogated" sometimes so I hope you don't take that part too personally.

I've been really interested in this as I am trying to get to the bottom of my daughters (12yrs ) foot injury. 7 weeks ago she landed badly doing gymnastics and twisted her ankle. A hard bony lump on her foot and pain on the outside and across the side of the foot. 2 A&E visits told it was a sprain at the first visit and to use it as much as possible , X-ray on the second visit ( which looked very much to me like it was of the ankle and not the foot) was clear , mri scan of which results are still not back an appointment for a mri scan that I tried to cancel as she has already had one , but the second one although I have the letter with the date and time mri and appointment departments have no record of this. a physio friend who deals everyday with professional sportsmen believes it is a fracture and needs urgent attention as its near a growth plate and leaving it for long untreated can cause a whole host of problems. I'm getting no where as of today tried to get MRI results after being passed around told to make an appointment with paediatric orthopaedics but they couldnt as they were to busy to arrange it and someone would call me but couldnt say when. I absolutley understand your predicament with your daughters injury in the grand scheme of things you have got it resolved quite fast, but you should def raise your concerns though I fear that it will make no difference , they are quite simply over stretched underpaid and badly manage. It's easy to get angry as I feel the same and completely at a lose as what I should do now . The fact still remains I have a d with a very painful foot , strange lump who is very limited in activity and cannot wear a shoe. I would also add that less than a year ago she had a hip injury an i experienced the same type of treatment after 6 months with no diagnosis, pain relief or cure I went private in the end and her hip problem was diagnosed and treated within half and hour and within 8 weeks following physio, (which was only needed because her leg muscles and tendons were so week as the hadn't been used properly for so long ). She was back to full fitness. I wish I could do that again but it is just so expensive.
It is a very worrying state of affairs as this is all to common.