medical negligence

davet

I am hoping to get advice re the following, in august 2012 I was in a meeting at work when I passed out, I was taken by ambulance to the local A&E where after a while I was diagnosed as having a chest infection, given a fistful of antibiotics and sent away I felt very ill for the following week and did not return to work until a week after, after approx an hour I realised that I was having difficulty making my lefyt arm and hand work I went straight to my GP who suggested that I may have suffered a stroke, he called an ambulance and on my arrival at the same A&E they confirmed his diagnosis and I was admitted, the following day I underwent numerous tests and my then wife who at the time was a blood science pathologist at a different hospital, came to the hospital to see me, as she was a medical professional I left her to discuss my case with the stroke doctor and it transpired that my CT scan discovered  not only a scar on my brain relevant to the stroke I suffered the day before but it showed an older scar which the stroke doctor felt was about a week old, suggesting that my chest infection the earlier week was in fact a stroke, my wife then made inquiries with specialist doctors at her own hospital and found that, if my 'chest infection' had been correctly diagnosed as a stroke, I would have been given a clot busting medication which would have prevented my second stroke(which left me badly disabled), she also found that one of the antibiotics I was given for a chest infection had a side effect of causing a stroke, I obviously complained to the hospital who immediately denied all responsibility, some time afterwards I consulted a solicitor who advised me that there was a 3 year limit on bringing a case such as this, and I was unable to sue, being unaware of this 3 year rule I had left it too long to to do anything through the courts, I obviously lost my job, my home, my savings,my dignity and eventually my marriage and I find it hard to believe there is nothing I can do about it, I have written to everyone I can think of, my MP the prime minister, the ministry of justice and the law society, but it seems there is nothing I can do about it even though the proof of this negligence is evident on my hospital records for all to see and I was hoping someone could point me in a new direction

Richard_Scope

Hi @davet
It seems that you have had to endure such a lot. We have some advice on Compensation for medical negligence
I hope that the information is helpful.

Chloe_Scope

Hi @davet, thank you for taking the time to share this with us all. I am so sorry you have had to go through this! I really hope the community is able to aid you in getting the correct compensation that you deserve.

davet

Hi Richard, thanks for that, the problem that I have isan unjust time limit of 3 years, it appears that the states that I have only 3 years from realising that medical negligence took place to bring a case to the courts, this is something I was not aware of until consulting a solicitor and something the hospital conveniently forgot to mention when I suggested that I would consult a solicitor, this law appears to provide a limit for holding someone accountable for their negligence, but no limit to someones suffering

Richard_Scope

I have some experience of that too. Short of a change to the statute of limitations we are hamstrung.