Medical nightmare - advice on what to do next

[Chickle84]

In May 2010 my mum suffered a fracture in her ankle which was misdiagnosed as cellulitis then arthritis by her GP. The fracture wasn't picked up on an xray and her doctor insisted the bone wasn't damaged an encouraged her to keep walking on it and absolutely refused to send her for a second xray, even though her sysmptoms were classic fracture symptoms. After 6 weeks, mum had an MRI scan privately, and it was discovered that not only had she fractured her ankle but by walking on it (as encouraged by her GP) she had broken her tibia. The doctor said her bone was so damaged it looked like she'd been in a car accident and that the leg would need to be pinned. The private hosptital contacted mum's GP and she was rushed straight to the local NHS hospital for an op. The doctors at the NHS hospital operated but, much to everyone's surprise, didn't pin the leg, saying that mum's leg had two nice clean fractures, This contradicted what she was told at the private hospital. The fractures didn't heal. Mum suffered from bone over-growth, then the leg became crooked. The fractures were rebroken and the leg plastered agin. The leg became severely twisted. Eventually, she had to go into an external frame for several months. At this stage, she started to suffer with serious issue infections. The cage was removed in spring last year but had not fixed the problem. In july, they decided they would pin the leg after all.However, as mum's skin was so severely damaged from the infections, further operations just aggrevated the situation. Most recently, mum has had to have the screws holding in the pin removed, due to excessive pain, infections and fluid build up. They are now trying compression bandages but this also seems to be failing, as my mum is in constant unbearable agony. She is being sent for another xray next week. At best case, they will get the pain and swelling reduced and, after skin grafts, my mum will have some sort of movement back in her leg. The more likely scenario, which the doctors are hinting at more and more often, is that my mum will lose her leg from the knee downwards. Me and my family at at our wits end. My mum is in her late 60's, my dad's in his 70's. For nearly 2 years their whole lives have been put on hold and have revolved around trips to the doctor or to the hospital, My mum has had 7 operations in less than two years and is now suffering with severely high blood pressure. She is in constant unbearable agony (and she has an expretermly high pain threshold normally, having suffered all her life with chronic back pain) and the whole situation is beginning to take a serious toll on the wellbeing of both mum and dad. It's unbelievable to think that what started as a simple stress fracture is now looking more and more like a case for amputation and nothing the doctors do seems to be helping her, in fact, it seems to be one botch job after another. If you could see the state of mum's leg - it's severly disfigured and ulcerated. The situation has got so bad now that she can barely move from her bed to get to the bathroom. My mum is normally such an active person it's just heartbreaking to see. My family and I just don't know what to do next to help her. The doctors seemed to have drawn a blank and she's almost turned into a bit of an experiment as far as they're concerned. The doctors and nurses she's seeing have all been lovely but no-one is offering her any real solutions. She's just suffering in agony and seeing her consultant once a fortnight and I really don't think he knows how much she's suffering. Does anyone have any advice on what we can do or who we can contact to discuss mum's case? She's lost the best part of the last 2 years of her life and I can't see how things are going to improve for her as things seem to be getting worse. We really don't know what to do. Private treatment probably isn't an option I'm afraid as we don't have the funds. I'd be grateful of any advice however. Thanks for reading! Beavis x

[Sqad]

Ann.always wanted to be a surgeon, but couldn't afford it, so after i qualified, I did GP for3 years to get some money and then went back to the bottom rung of surgical jobs and then became a consultant ENT surgeon.

Did GP locums at nights and weekends all through my surgical training to get some money in to keep wife and kids fed.

[Ann]

Thanks Sqad, and we are very grateful to have you on our AB site! How are you feeling now, hope you are progressing well :)

[Sqad]

Ann....almost back to normal.

[boxtops]

I agree with a a couple of earlier threads - first of all, to contact your local PALS service in your Primary Care Trust, they are there to help in situations like this (Patient Advocate and Liaison Service). The other point about seeing a solicitor is if you do consider that there has been medical negligence - in which case there are specialist solicitors dealing in the field who you will no doubt be able to Google, and they know exactly how to go about these things. There is one in our area who handles nearly all the claims against the local NHS which have been very publicly reported, and which have resulted in serious public enquiries. There is no harm in doing both.