Kentish Express Ashford & District
Patient wants answers after lung clot drama
An Ashford man wants to take court action against the NHS who claims staff at the William Harvey Hospital misdiagnosed a lung clot with a chest infection.
Retained fireman Danny Ayles, 34, called the NHS 111 line after suffering with a tight chest, pains and shortness of breath earlier this month.
An ambulance was sent to him at his home in Linden Road, and he was taken to the Ashford hospital.
After spending three hours in A&E, he was sent home with antibiotics for what they believed was a chest infection.
Still in pain the next day, he called work to let them know he wouldn’t be in.
Mr Ayles said: “I had a restless night’s sleep and I was still struggling to breathe so called work, but they could hear how bad I was so called an ambulance for me.
“A paramedic came to my house, checked me over and give me more painkillers, which didn’t help me so that night I was back up the Harvey for a few more hours only to be told there was nothing they could do.”
As Mr Ayles lives alone in Ashford, he made the decision to travel to Hastings to stay with a friend. When he wasn’t feeling better, she took him to a walkin doctors, who said he needed to return to A&E straight away.
He was admitted to the Conquest Hospital, in St Leonardson-sea, East Sussex, where test results revealed Mr Ayles had a blood clot in his lung and pneumonia.
My Ayles said: “I think it is disgusting and a disgrace how the Harvey have doctors that missed that.
“I’m going to take this much further. “I think it’s a joke. “I’m thinking of taking court action to sue them as this is a serious matter and I want to know why I wasn’t treated better. How can they have medical doctors that can’t even do the tests right?
“I’m so upset about this as that’s my local hospital and I had to go somewhere else to be looked after.
“I want answers. This could have been dealt with at the Harvey but it hasn’t.
“I called the complaints department but all I got was an answer phone recording so left a message to call me ASAP.” The William Harvey Hospital is looked after by the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust.
A spokesman said: “We are sorry to hear of Mr Ayles’ experience at Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital. We take all complaints very seriously and are currently investigating this one fully.
“It should be noted that diagnosis of conditions like this can be complicated. Antibiotics were given as the original symptoms suggested a chest infection. When Mr Ayles went to the hospital in Hastings he would have been able to have told doctors he had already been on a course of antibiotics so they could immediately rule out an infection.”
Mr Ayles, who has made a formal complaint against the trust, has been written off work for two weeks and is on antibiotics, painkillers and a blood thinner.
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