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Leg Tumour Remains Undiagnosed For Five Years

When Hannah began to experience pelvic pain and numbness in her left leg, she continuously sought medical attention but her complaints were repeatedly dismissed for the next five years. Eventually Hannah raised enough money to pay for a private x-ray which showed a tumour growing on her thigh bone.

When pregnant, Hannah began to suffer pain in her pubic area and numbness in her left leg. On each occasion she was reassured and told it was simply the baby pressing on a nerve.

However, after the birth, the pain did not subside. Two years later, she was experiencing acute episodes of pain in her pelvic area, prompting her to seek advice from her GP. He asked Hannah whether she had ever had an x-ray, and she said she had not. The GP then prescribed codeine but did not return to the issue of an x-ray.

After returning to her GP once again with the same problems, Hannah was referred to another doctor at the local hospital. He diagnosed Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD) and referred her to a physiotherapist. No x-ray was performed.

Over the next two months Hannah received four sessions of physiotherapy, with the treating practitioner agreeing that she had the symptoms of SPD. Again, no x-ray was performed and Hannah was discharged from the physio sessions.

She continued to do her exercises as instructed, but still the pain did not alleviate. Eventually the pain was so bad that Hannah actually collapsed on her daughter's bedroom floor. Her husband called the GP who dismissed the problem as a minor muscle spasm. After much insistence the GP came to examine Hannah, and after some 12 hours of lying in the same position, she was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

In hospital she was vomiting due to the severity of the pain. But again Hannah was treated with disdain, and a female doctor told her it was just a muscle spasm and that she should get up. She was discharged without having had an x-ray. The following day Hannah returned to her GP who simply prescribed more pain-relief.

By this stage Hannah was completely immobile and could not even visit the toilet without taking strong painkillers. Her husband decided that enough was enough and that they would pay for private physiotherapy treatment. She was seen by two different physiotherapists, neither of whom ordered an x-ray.

It was only when she was passed onto a third physiotherapist that a pelvic instability was detected. Finally an x-ray was performed five years after her pain had started and the radiologists immediately found a problem. Hannah had a tumour on her left femur which was so large and had eaten so far into the bone that it was ready to break. There was already a hairline fracture in the femur and a pelvic instability. Her condition was then correctly diagnosed as fibrous dysplasia.

Surgery would have been performed days later, but it became apparent that Hannah was in fact pregnant again. She therefore had to wait until after the delivery to undergo an operation, during which time she was bound to a wheelchair. This was very upsetting for Hannah who did not know whether or not the tumour was benign. She certainly would not have conceived again had an earlier diagnosis been made.

A doctor told Hannah that had an x-ray been performed two years earlier, the tumour would have been diagnosed. It was only due to the repeated negligence of her GP, physiotherapists and other doctors that this did not happen, causing her to endure two years of needless pain and suffering.

We helped Hannah make a claim for the terrible impact this delayed diagnosis had on the lives of her and her loved ones, obtaining over £50,000 compensation on her behalf.

(Details which might identify our client have been changed.)

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