Potential NHS Malpractice

[iamtuftyclub]

My elderly mother is a type 1 diabetic and around 6 or 7 months ago it was recommended that she had surgery on her foot as her circulation was badly impacted by the diabetes and the prognosis was that her leg would have to be amputated in the future. She trusted the consultant and went through the surgery. Before the surgery she was in pain but reasonably mobile and out and about .

We were told the surgery was successful and there was a long period afterwards of recuperation , however nothing has really improved and she has been unable to leave the house since.

She recently ended up back in hospital soon after for an unrelated complication and while she was having a procedure done under local anaesthetic she heard with two doctors talking about her surgery while looking at her leg and saying "that was a right mess and everything's in the wrong place"

I think they had assumed she was a deaf old woman so when she challenged them after they denied it. Now she finally has got back home with nurses popping in to they all mention that she has dreadful circulation in both legs, which seems contradictory to her being told that the circulation surgery was a success .

My mother is not one of these people that's desperately after money what she's angry about is that she may have been lied to as It looks like the surgery
wasn't successful. Incidentally we both understand that surgery is not always successful , but we would prefer honesty as if the surgery was not successful it makes me think that actually she will have to have a leg amputated in the future

Our second concern is that it looks like it wasn't done correctly at all

Money sadly won't improve her quality of life and we are more interested in knowing the truth about what happened.

Is something that would be seen as NHS malpractice and what we could do about it?

Presumably she was treated under the vascular team?

Did she have tissue loss in her feet/legs? Claudication? Ischemia?

I wouldn’t trust the conversation she overheard to be honest. “It’s all in the wrong place” would be a very strange thing to say - if anything was in the wrong place she’d have a dead foot/leg.

Unfortunately diabetics have circulatory issues which don’t always improve with surgery. Any complications would have been explained during consenting, do you still have the paperwork?

The fact someone )presumably) the surgeon mentioned amputation before her surgery makes me think she clearly had a high degree of blockage in her arteries - there are many degrees of surgery before an amputation

Her circulation may well still be a mess - it doesn’t mean the surgery was a failure. The surgery may have been to save her foot/leg that day, ergo, it was a success if she still has her leg.

yes it was vascular surgery. I paraphrased about the 'wrong place statement' as neither of use are medical , but from what she said I got a feeling that the stent was not in the correct place?

I do take your point - maybe it would be much worse without, but the possible amputation was 'a good few years off' , and yes we were happy with the risks.

She now been told she has to wear these tight vascular stockings , which is going to cause pain, and I am just surprised that after a successful surgery this is needed.

You could ask pals to investigate for you and decide after this ?

I don't think there is a mal practice case here, you don't always get the results you want with this type of surgery and you hope it will work but every body reacts differently. Be thankful she has a team trying to help her instead of looking for ways to sue til he nhs.

Thanks all. I have heard of pals and just googled it so it seems like a good step.