Man’s wrist still broken 18 months after misdiagnosis
FIVE-FIGURE DAMAGES SETTLEMENT
A MAN who has lived with a broken wrist for more than a year-and-ahalf after medics twice misdiagnosed him and failed to order X-rays has been awarded a five-figure damages settlement.
The 23-year-old, who doesn’t wish to be named, hurt his right hand when playing football and went to Bransholme Minor Injuries Unit to have the injury assessed. He immediately feared his wrist was broken but was told by a nurse that it was likely he had only suffered a sprain, having assessed the range of movement in his wrist and thumb.
He was sent home without an X-ray. Over the coming weeks, he continued to be in pain when trying to carry out day-to-day activities.
He returned to the Minor Injuries Unit – more than two months after suffering the injury – and was seen by a physiotherapist, who noted soft tissue tenderness but again, due to the amount of movement he had in his wrist, concluded it was only a sprain.
No X-ray was taken again and the man was advised to have physiotherapy to help his wrist recover. It was only as a result of seeing a physiotherapist that an X-ray was finally arranged, with results showing the scaphoid fracture.
This was five months after he first attended the Minor Injuries Unit. He continues to await surgery today and now requires a bone graft to be taken from his hip in order to try and fix his wrist.
He has been warned the operation may not be able to return his wrist to normal function.
Now, following a legal case led by Hull-based medical negligence specialists Hudgell Solicitors, the patient
has accepted a five-figure compensation settlement out of court.
The City Health Care Partnership (CHCP) CIC that runs Bransholme Minor Injuries Unit has also confirmed it has changed its procedures when assessing such cases.
In a letter to the man’s legal representative, Rachel O’connor, the CHCP CIC admitted breaching its duty of care in wrongly diagnosing the injury as a sprain and in failing to take an X-ray. It also admitted that the fracture was likely to have been diagnosed in August or October 2020 with an X-ray, and would have healed after several weeks had it been put into a plaster cast immediately.
He received an apology for the “substandard care” and an “unreserved apology”. The letter also confirmed changes to procedures.
It said: “Lessons have been learnt from this incident and improvements have been made. A scaphoid injury update has been circulated and the threshold for X-ray has been reduced.”
The patient agreed to settle his case prior to having surgery, and said he was happy it had led to a change in approach.
“This shouldn’t happen as all it needed was an X-ray, so I am glad that my case has led to changes happening in how these injuries are assessed and treated,” the patient said.
“It’s had a big impact on my life as
I am right-handed and it is just too weak to do anything without pain. I obviously haven’t been able to play football since, nor other sports.”
Rachel O’connor, a specialist in handling medical negligence compensation claims at Hudgell Solicitors, believes an early diagnosis would have seen the injury heal quite quickly.
She said: “This was an injury which should have been correctly identified immediately, and which with appropriate treatment, would have healed in a matter of weeks. Here we are now more than a yearand-a-half later with him still in pain and difficulty, and facing more extensive surgery.
“We wish him well for his upcoming surgery and hope it goes well for him.”
The CHCP said: “We cannot disclose any details about the care of individual patients as this would be a breach of confidentiality.”