Medical Negligence

oldmanmille

Firstly apologies if this in the wrong place but couldnt find medical forum!!

My wife has been telling me (not nagging) to raise this issue with the NHS ever since 2007 but as always I have procrastinated!

In 2007 I had a fall in the front garden and I couldnt move so ambulance called. They filled me full of morphine (lovely stuff) and took me to Warrington General Hospital.

I was diagnosed with a fracture vertebrea and kept in hospital for a few days on my back. They took cat scan etc to identify this although the lead up to that was poor treatment due to lack of staff.

Anyway, about 12 mths after that I had to go to doctors about the pain in my back and I was sent for an xray. The doctor said the xray revealed 2 cracked vertebrea but not to worry as they both healing/healed.

6 years on and I am in severe agony with my back and it doesnt allow me to do too much without giving so much aches and pains that I have to sit down and relax. I hate doing nothing but I have to give in.

My question is: after 6 years do I have a claim against NHS for not initially noticing the 2 fractures and providing better care?

Short straw probably!

Torry_Quine

I'm confused as you mention being diagnosed with a fractured vertebrae in the hospital and then that 12 months later an x-ray showed two healing vertebrae.

horngkai

they have diagnosed the fracture on the initial CT scan and then 12 months later your X-ray showed a healed fracture. What's the problem?

jacques_chirac

Have you established a direct link between the current pain and the original injury? Many people develop back pain as they get older for no particular reason. I would also suggest that you are out of time, the time limit for clinical negligence is three years from the date of knowledge, which in your case would be the later scan.

elsien

And what treatment/diagnosis have you had in the intervening years for the problem?

Poppie68

Sounds like they did the correct thing in giving you a scan as they can be very hard to spot on an xray, even though yours did show up 12 months later. I'm presuming they prescribed pain relief, did they offer physio? or did you ask?
Treatment for this kind of frature is very conservative as rest and pain relief is usually the best way to help heal. If you are now having back pain it may or may not be down to the fractures but that is very common and not necessarily down to negligence.