Misdiagnosed Bone Fractures - A&E Negligence

Claim For A Misdiagnosed Bone Fracture

The pressure to treat as many patients as possible, as quickly as possible, makes Accident and Emergency Departments even more stressful than perhaps they might otherwise be. When people are under pressure, in many cases they can be more likely to make mistakes, and when those mistakes can mean the difference between life and death it becomes a very serious situation.

In some cases, recognising and appropriately treating a broken bone can be quite straight forward; if someone has fallen, landed awkwardly upon their arm and can now not move it, or not move it without intense pain, it would be a fair guess that they had broken their arm. An X-ray could confirm the location and nature of the fracture and after resetting, the arm could be put into a cast and the patient sent home with something for their friends to write on. Sadly not all cases are that simple and sometimes a fracture, or broken bone might not be suspected – indeed it might be thought to be something else entirely, and treated according to parameters for that injury.

Take for example the case of Sarah-Jayne Roche who had nearly completed the Cardiff Half-marathon when she pulled up with intense, shooting pain in her leg. Both at the medical tent and later at Royal Glamorgan Hospital’s A&E Department, she was told that she had pulled her hamstring, and that the best treatment was to take some paracetamol and rest her leg. Her leg continued to swell until she was finally given an X-ray on her fourth visit to hospital, where they realised that she had fractured her femur and needed an operation to correct the breakage; she died from a cardiac arrest during the operation.

Fortunately it is incredibly rare for the misdiagnosis of a bone fracture to lead to death, but the effects from this type of misdiagnosis can involve anything from weeks or even months of additional pain, the failure of a bone to heal at all, or in some cases if the fracture is not properly treated it lead to the restriction of blood supply to local tissue and muscle, causing serious issues with long-term effects.

In some situations it can be the failure to use X-rays to identify a fracture, in other cases it can be a failure to identify a fracture on an X-ray, and in some cases it can simply be that the doctor or medical team didn’t suspect a fracture, or were even too busy with other injuries to notice it – no matter how the misdiagnosis occurs, if you become injured, or your injury is not treated properly while you are in the care of a hospital, it is likely you will be eligible to make a claim for compensation.

If you or someone you care for has suffered as a result of misdiagnosis, you should get in contact with us today. Our friendly team of knowledgeable solicitors have many years of experience in handling cases of misdiagnosis and are on hand now to listen to your experience and help you decide whether a compensation claim is the appropriate way forward. Rest-assured we will support you throughout your case, but if you chose not to continue you are under no obligation to do so.