‘John’, a man in his 50s

‘John’ was seen by his GP and a hospital many times over the course of two years due to difficulty swallowing and was wrongly diagnosed with heartburn (acid reflux). Despite the fact that the issue did not improve with treatment, doctors failed to investigate further, and a tumour in his gullet (oesophagus) was not discovered until it was too late to remove it surgically. The negligence had a devastating impact on John and his family, who have struggled to come to terms with his terminal diagnosis. However, they now have the means to cope with the financial implications after Lucy Mellor, a specialist medical negligence solicitor at JMW, secured a compensation settlement of £850,000 for them. 

What went wrong? 

John was generally a very fit and healthy man and, prior to his misdiagnosis, had no significant problems with his health. When he first started to experience symptoms with his oesophagus it felt like an uncomfortable ‘bruised’ sensation above his breastbone when he swallowed food. When it occurred, it felt as though he was swallowing a boiled sweet whole. The sensation was worse when John consumed fizzy drinks, so he stopped having these altogether. 

When the sensation didn’t go away after a couple of months, John made an appointment with his GP. The GP examined John and told him he was probably suffering from heartburn, for which they prescribed medication. It didn’t feel like heartburn to John, which he had experienced before, but John took the medication. 

The prescribed medication did nothing to alleviate the uncomfortable feeling in John’s gullet and about three weeks later he went back to his GP and saw a different doctor. John explained that the medication was not working, and the doctor referred him to an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) doctor at hospital. 

At the hospital appointment, the doctor put a small camera through John’s nose to look at the back of his throat. However crucially, the camera only went as far as his vocal cords. The doctor did not pass the camera into his gullet, the area where the worrying sensation was occurring. 

The hospital doctor also thought that John was suffering from heartburn and prescribed some slightly stronger medication. John repeated what he had said to his GP, that his symptoms did not feel like the heartburn he had experienced in the past and so he was concerned that this problem was something else. The doctor dismissed John’s concerns and said he just needed to give the medication time to work. However, the doctor failed to tell John what he should do if the stronger medication did not alleviate the sensation in his gullet. 

Deterioration 

The medication made no difference whatsoever to the worrying sensation in John’s gullet, but he had been led to believe that the sensation was ‘normal’ because he was suffering from heartburn. 

Two years later John developed a hernia and was referred for surgery. As part of the pre-operative checks, John had a blood test. The blood test revealed that John’s iron levels were low. Low iron levels in a man can be a sign of bleeding somewhere in the digestive system or cancer. John was referred back to the hospital for further investigations. 

At the hospital appointment a camera was put directly down John’s throat and into his gullet. It was recognised that there was a growth present. Tissue samples were taken and days later John was given the devastating news that the growth was a cancerous tumour.

Further tests revealed that, sadly, due to the amount of time for which the tumour had been present, it was at an advanced stage. John was told that the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes, and so surgery to remove the tumour would not achieve anything. He was told that his condition was terminal, and the only option was palliative care with chemotherapy. 

John and his wife were very concerned that the uncomfortable sensation that had been present in John’s gullet for two years was in the exact location of his tumour. They were concerned that it could have been investigated sooner and this could have improved his prognosis. They contacted the specialist medical negligence solicitors at JMW for advice and their case was taken on by Lucy Mellor. 

JMW’s investigation 

Lucy’s investigation focused on the care provided to John by his GP when he first developed the uncomfortable sensation in his oesophagus, and his subsequent hospital appointment. After analysing John’s medical records, Lucy asked leading medical experts working within the relevant fields of medicine to consider her areas of concern and provide reports confirming whether, in their opinion, the care had been negligent, and if so, if it had made any difference to the outcome for John.

The medical experts advised that John’s GP should have referred him to a gastrointestinal doctor instead of an ENT doctor, and that the hospital had also failed to tell John what to do in the event that the stronger medication did not work. 

The medical experts confirmed that if the doctors had provided the correct treatment, John’s cancer would have been diagnosed two years earlier when it was possible for it to be cured. 

Lucy built a strong case against both the GP and the hospital, and whilst the GP never admitted any wrong-doing, the hospital trust did. This enabled Lucy to begin to negotiate a compensation settlement for John and his family. 

This was an extremely tragic case, and no amount of money could ever fully compensate John or put things right. However, the settlement of £850,000 has given him some peace of mind that his young family will have some financial security when his cancer reaches the final stages.