‘Doctors failed to diagnose my cancer for three years’
ARETIRED grandfather has said his cancer was missed by doctors for three years. Mehdi Moghaddas, 63, visited four different doctors on 13 occasions and was told that he was suffering anxiety due to his retirement.
It wasn’t until July 2016 that an out-of-hours doctor diagnosed the seriousness of his condition and sent him to hospital as an emergency case. His family were told that he had just hours to live and were told to say their goodbyes.
In a lengthy operation, half a metre of his colon and a large tumour were removed.
After the operation, the family were told that if the cancer had been diagnosed earlier, he would now be on the road to recovery.
Instead, since March he has had 12 sessions of chemotherapy and is still having treatment now.
Mr Moghaddas and his wife, Janet, who live in Newport, now say they have been let down for a second time as they are being refused treatment via the Individual Patient Funding Requests.
They say that being refused treatment has led to them having to pay for his treatment themselves.
This week the couple paid £1,350 for a scan to determine if he can have further surgery.
Janet Moghaddas-Davies said: “Surely Mehdi, as a patient who has paid his national insurance stamp for the last 38 years who has advanced stage-four cancer with a much shorter life expectancy, deserves better than this.
“I can’t believe this happened to us. This is not how we envisaged our retirement. If the doctors had intervened earlier we would not be spending nearly all our time back and forth Velindre Hospital. Our family would have been spared the anguish of seeing their father suffer.
“Our three little grandchildren are prevented from coming to our home every time they have a slight cold”
His wife said that she has not come to terms with it.
She said her husband, an active man and a keen windsurfer, had shown symptoms including high blood pressure, weight loss and night sweats.
“Why didn’t they say that he had symptoms which could be cancer?
“He put his complete trust in the doctors as professionals. They kept telling him it was anxiety. They told him to take medication and to avoid spicy foods,” she said.
On July 31 last year he was in so much pain his wife took him to the out-of-hours doctors.
“We arrived at the hospital at 9pm and Mehdi was immediately seen by the doctor as by this time he could neither stand nor sit comfortably.
“During the examination, the doctor reported seeing blood in his urine and found a large lump on the right-hand side in his abdomen.”
They were told to go to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, and a CT scan revealed the cancer had spread to his liver and lungs.
“They told me that unless he had an emergency operation he would only have 12 hours to live,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the Aneurin Bevan Health Board said: “We understand that this is a very difficult time for Mr Moghaddas and his family and we would be happy to discuss any continuing concerns with them regarding his care.”
The family are now trying to raise their own funds for his care. To donate to the family’s justgiving page visit https://www.justgiving.com/ crowdfunding/makingmehdibetter.