misdiagnosed fractures, can anyone advise.

[capticorn1]

I had an accident and was taken to a minor injuries unit where the injured limb was xrayed and I was told that it was just a sprain. After a couple of days I went to the doctors and was prescribed painkillers and she noted the extent of the bruising, over the next few weeks I saw 3 other doctors and a physio, I then saw another physio who sent me for more xrays, a few days later I saw an orthopaedic specialist who diagnosed something totally different and booked me in for a CT scan, which when I got the results 2weeks later showed a non displaced fracture of 1 bone and a comminuted fracture of another bone. All in all it was 7 weeks from accident to correct diagnosis and now I need surgery to correct this.

Can anyone advise me on how I stand legally on this.
Thanks in advance.

Some fractures are very difficult to diagnose.

Unless you have long term loss of use in the limb (and it is demonstrably due to the delay , rather than the injury - VERY unlikely) Then I don't see any reason to sue?

By all means speak to PALS about your concern in the delay in getting a diagnosis, but that's all I would suggest TBH. Is it hand/wrist/scaphoid by any chance?

No it's none of those. The orthopaedic surgeon has stated that because of the delay in getting the correct diagnosis means that the prognosis is not as good as had it been correctly diagnosed in the first place. The wrong area was xrayed with the wrong type of xray.

Can pm you if you want me to be more specific but I will not post too much here as it will identify me

I suspect it would be difficult to prove that any long term effects were down to the delay, IYKWIM? Some people recover brilliantly from surgery, others may always have a slight loss of function and proving the delay caused it may be difficult.

The next step would possibly be speaking to a legal firm about your chances, as a specialist medical report would be needed and that would cost £££ unless the firm is taking you on as no win no fee. (I have HCP background, not legal. But experience of someone suing after death causing by poor clinical management and they can be very difficult to succeed with unless blatantly obvious negligence)

if you want to pm me I'd be happy to give you any suggestions I can, but I am no expert at all. I have experience of advocating for people escalating complaints to ombudsman etc though