Father who begged for MRI dies

A FATHER who had to ‘beg’ to get an MRI scan because of the Covid-19 crisis has died of cancer.

Sherwin Hall, 27, went to hospital on March 23 suffering from leg pain but despite repeated visits he was only given a course of antibiotics for a misdiagnosis of a swollen prostate gland.

After ‘begging for a scan’ and 13 hospital visits in four weeks, delivery driver Mr Hall was finally given an MRI scan on May 26 – two months after first seeing doctors.

It revealed a 5.5in malignant tumour in his pelvis and 30 small tumours on his lungs.

But the delays and impact of the pandemic on his treatment meant Mr Hall lived for less than six months. The father of two, from Leeds, died on December 3.

Before his death, Mr Hall said: ‘I kept begging them to give me an MRI scan but no one would listen.

‘Both my GP and my consultant told me that I couldn’t get one because scanning services were slowed down because of the coronavirus.’ Yesterday his wife LaTroya, a 32-year-old law student and bank worker, said: ‘I have lost the love of my life and am devastated. But my concern is that there are thousands of people suffering in silence. The Government and NHS leaders... need to treat this as the crisis it is and urgently boost services.’

Mary Smith, associate legal director and patient safety expert at Novum Law, said: ‘I fear this is the tip of the iceberg and the real impact of the cancer backlog and the devastating human toll will emerge in the months and years to come.’