Our client had a tragic experience of a delay to his diagnosis of bowel cancer which sadly led to his early death.
His experience started abroad, when he went for an ultrasound scan following a month of abdominal discomfort. The scan, unfortunately, revealed lesions in both his stomach and liver.
On returning to the UK, he was referred to a Gastroenterologist and underwent further investigations including an abdominal ultrasound, a gastroscopy and a CT scan of his liver, but significantly not his abdomen.
Although the CT scan confirmed the presence of the liver lesions it was felt that these were most probably benign and his symptoms were instead attributed to visceral hypersensitivity.
However, over time his abdominal symptoms started to become more troublesome with weight loss, lethargy and constipation. An endoscopy was eventually carried out which revealed a blockage in the bowel and our client was subsequently diagnosed as suffering from bowel cancer with extensive liver metastases.
Just a few weeks later, he suffered a bowel obstruction, requiring emergency surgery. He sadly died 18 months after the surgery.
Had his cancer been diagnosed earlier, he would have undergone liver resection surgery following chemotherapy. The bowel tumour would have been removed at the same time as the liver surgery and he would, therefore, have avoided the bowel obstruction and emergency surgery. It is likely that he would have had an additional 2 – 2.5 years of life.
Novum Law took on and won his claim and successfully established that the diagnosis of visceral hypersensitivity was negligent and also that in view of his symptoms an earlier abdominal CT scan should have been carried out.
If you or a loved one has suffered due to misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, delayed treatment, treatment errors or another type of medical negligence, then please get in touch – call Novum Law on Freephone 0800 884 0777, email: info@novumlaw.com or complete the enquiry form on this page.
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