Which is more important?

[tigwig]

If you were in a situation of complaining to the NHS about gross negligence that caused the death of your mum and were told you could go down the route of the healthcare commission which would hopefully mean those responsible would get their comeuppance and it wouldn't happen again or you could involve solicitors and sue them to get compensation what would you go for? A big payout or get the so called health professional sacked? Be honest!

[bednobs]

again, how will treating yourselves make you feel any better though? you will treat yourself but the death of your mum will always be there. You have only given limited info, but from what you have said, if your mum was having regular scans that were coming back as "negative" (for cancer) i cant understand what else you think could have happened. Its not like the prospect of prospective chemotherapy in case it was cancer is a viable option, because that could have also killed her. I understand you are upset, as i would be but please remember these clinicians did not give her cancer - it was her own body that let her down. Pleople cant be scanned evey week in case nodules turn into cancer, and every few months seems like a reasonable time period to me. forgive me if ive read you wrong. As for the a and e mistake, all i can say is that doctors are human beings first and doctors second, and as such sometimes dont get it spot on. The symptoms she was presenting with may well have suggested constipation, and if 99 times out of 100 it IS constipation then that is what a doctor would think. I dnt mean to belittle you experience, just to explain that from the facts you have given you are either going to be very frustrated or very poor

[bednobs]

also, im not sure who told you it could have been cured, but i just wonder how on earth they know that?

[Drisgirl]

Honestly tigwig -I do feel for you - its appalling but I personally would take it though the proper channels.
I know you have mentioned compensation a a couple of times and I am by no means taking a pop -but what price a persons life?Get justice by all means but money doesnt solve a bloody thing -its almost like -there you go-thats the first instalment of what your dad was worth.It doesnt bode well with a 22 and an 18 yr old -they just want him.
Its up to you -at the end of the day like you said -do you want to save another family going through the same agony -or do you want your pound of flesh?

Money IMO is only good for going to Tescos paying the mortgage,maybe having a holiday occasionalyy -BUT it can NEVER compensate for the sudden tragic death of a loved one at the hands of someone else.

[tigwig]

bednobs you have got it wrong about what happened. The scans showed that the nodule changed every time until it was obvious that it wasn't a nodule but actually a tumour attached to her lung. the thing was my mum was always told there had been no change over a period of nearly 2 years when really there had been and this is what the reports are telling us we have it in black and white. All the time she was told she was ok when she wasn't and the proffessor responsible for this was either lying or not even reading the reports correctly, it was this negligence that caused her death and when the tumour was eventually found by someone else they said she could have had an operation to take out the tumour 2 years ago if they had done a biopsy and found it was actually cancerous then. In regards to A&E treating her for constipation, when this treatment didn't work and she was screaming in pain for 3 days don't you think they should have thought hang on a minute it could be something more serious like appendicitus or a perforated bowel? Going back to the money, I know no amount would make up for losing her you don't have to tell me that but what I mean is it could make our lifes as they are now that bit easier financially, money can't replace a persons life but watching the children involved in this having a good time on holiday and being able to treat them does ease some of the pain.

[LoftyLottie]

I feel for you tigwig and understand your pain. Please don't forget though that, as I said before, the whole process of solicitors, courts, settlements and compensation can take many years. Your children might well be much older before you get a satisfactory outcome and enable them to enjoy a holiday. Is it worth it?

I too would keep pursuing this through the healthcare commission to hopefully get a final result that might at least ensure that someone has egg on their face and other families might benefit.

Best wishes LL

[bednobs]

also, i think the healthcare commission or nhs complaints wash their hands of anything once solicitors are involved. You could end up in the situatio a few years down the line having spent out loads in solicitors fees, with no result and no recourse to the commission.
With the extra info you have given all i can say is that the investigation might find that if the nodule didnt change until toward the end of the 2 years then the consultant was justified in the best interests of your mum not to tell her that there were changes because it wasn't cancer and it would just worry her for a 2 year period, with nothing they could actually do about it except watch it and wait. Even Oncologists take a "watch and wait" approach sometimes with cancers. While it is crappy that he never told her it might be a miscommunitcation rather than negligence, and you might be better to go down the hcc route first to give you some sort of idea how likely you are to succeed.


i am not trying to belittle your experiences but it is quite common for peopel to feel like this - "wanting to blame someone" after the death of a loved one even when there is no blame involved, except the illness itself. Benign lumps can turn cancerous within a very short space of time, so for those two years the lump may have changed but still not cancerous, but may have changed at the last minute

[beryllium]

When you go for suing you're actually just making a glorified insurance claim via laywers.

If the NHS/Government hired all good then there would be no need for insurance claims against them.

If you qualify for legal aid then make sure they're on the board.

http://www.hospitalnegligence.co.uk/

[THECORBYLOON]

tigwig there have been a few who have said that if you win a court case, any damages will be taken from NHS money but that is not the case. The NHS Trusts will have their own insurance schemes and any damages will be paid by those insurance companies.

The vast majority of information/reports needed for a court case will be requested by the Healthcare Commission so if it were me, I would hold on court action until they reached a decision and then use that as evidence of any malpractice .

Insurance companies often help wi legal cases so it may be worth contacting either yir own or yir late mother's to see if they will take on the case for no cost.

[tigwig]

Hi CORBYLOON, we just found out yesterday that only �10,000 comes out of the NHS funds and the rest out of insurance and I have just posted on Law about how to sue them. the thing is we want to go down the healthcare commission route as well but this can take 12-18 months maybe longer as this is complicated and you only have 3 years after the death to sue as well and it has already been 6 months

[bednobs]

the healthcare commision wont have anything to do with you if you so much as mention lawyers, so it would be better to use the healthcare commission route first. The response they give you will also help you decide whether it it worth sueing, for example if they say the same sort of things i said then you might be foolish to go and spend good money trying to su them.

Oh, what a relief that "ONLY 10,000" comes out of money that could be used to treat me. You must have a pretty skewed sense of what is a lot of moneey if you think thats a little amount!

[tigwig]

bednobs if you haven't got anything constructive to say then please don't bother, I can certainly do without your snide comments at this time in my life. I am not trying to say �10,000 is not alot of money at all but I didn't realise until now that compensation is paid for by insurance companies. I also know that we can't sue if we involve the healthcare commission, we could possibly do both but that depends on how long it takes as we have a 3 year time limit after my mums death to sue

[bednobs]

ive got loads of constructive things to say, for example, how was i to knw you already knew the healthcare commission wont touch your case if you are sueing?

[tigwig]

that wasn't what I meant, I meant your sarcastic comment about it been ONLY �10,000 I don't think it was called for especially given my situation

[bednobs]

oh right, im only allowed an opinion if it agrees with yours?
not allowed to say anything slightly sarcastic cause your mother n law died six months ago?
I am truley trying to help you by letting you see the other side of things. because you have had the awful experience of losing someone you love you seem a little evangelistic about things. What i am trying to say in answer to your original question is that surely anyone sensible could see that the most important thing IS NOT money. The fact you even have to ask the question leave rther a bad taste in the mouth, and the fact that you think a holiday would make up for losing a loved one leaves me rather puzzled!
i really am truley srry you have had this experience because it's totally crap for you and your family, but it makes me wonder how you will feel ewhen you have absolutely no money at all cause its all been spent on a futile court case. I really really think going to the healthcae cmmision to get for free an idea of how likely you are to succeed is the way to go. F4om you post you sound like you dont have money to waste

[bednobs]

plus you clearly didnt mean it when you said "be honest"

[tigwig]

what is that supposed to mean?

[gina32]

what exactly are you expecting if you do go on with this case?

[bednobs]

in your question you said "be honest" but i have been honest

[redcrx]

the NHS still have to pay for insurance and if like all other insurance the cost will go up for each claim.

�10,000 is a lot of money, perhaps not in the whole grand sheme of funds of the NHS, but could it save a life? Could it be used to train someone to read a scan correctly and save perhaps many lives

As i said before, i really feel for your siutation but money wont help your greif and anger at those who missed the vital sign that may have helped your mum.

Ive bene through a similar things where my grandad died due to gross negligence during an operation. The whole family discussed the options and a full explanation and apology along with details of what had been put in place to try and stop this happening again was a much better outcome in our eyes than a cheque.

[karmabum]

Actually I suspect that the NHS would take more notice of having to fork out a big sum of compensation than someone getting sacked. So take the money for a win-win situation! Not wanting to be as flip as that sounds, but really, it's all about money now, and stuff the morals. If the NHS have to cough up compensation, you can bet your boots that the person who caused that to happen will be moved very promptly into an admin position, if not sacked.