‘Early onset Alzheimer’s misdiagnosis ruined my life’
Independent clinician appointed to look into the case of a man told he had dementia at age of 55
AN INVESTIGATION has been started to determine how a man came to be wrongly diagnosed and treated for Alzheimer’s disease for seven years.
Alex Preston said the misdiagnosis had ruined his last years with his wife, who died from cancer in 2018, and had forced him into early retirement.
Mr Preston threw himself into fundraising for charities associated with the disease when he was diagnosed with it after suffering low mood and anxiety.
But further tests were carried out after a new nurse suggested he asked to see a consultant. They revealed that the original diagnosis was wrong and an independent investigation into the case has been started by Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT).
A fresh set of memory tests and a scan revealed that the original diagnosis had been labelled incorrectly, Mr Preston said, and there was no evidence of the disease in his original scans. He also claims there were errors in marking and scoring tests that led to his diagnosis.
He said: “I was so relieved, but I felt anger towards the doctor who had wrongly diagnosed me.”
Mr Preston, now 62, from Anstey, Leicestershire, told The Daily Telegraph he “basically gave up on life” as he thought he was dying and considered suicide. He also lost the job he loved as a senior technical shift operator for a major water supplier because he was deemed unfit to work with chemicals and machinery. Though he had cared for his wife alone for 15 months and visiting nurses had said he was doing well, nobody thought to reassess him or question his original diagnosis, he said.
Mr Preston said he asked his wife, Susan, to leave him three times to spare her suffering through his ordeal.
He added: “I didn’t want her worrying about me. But she stood by me and was diagnosed with cancer which, sadly, took her life.”
Mr Preston was told he had early onset Alzheimer’s in 2014, when he was 55, by a consultant at the Bradgate Unit, part of the LPT, after undergoing two scans and completing several memory tests over a period of about six months.
Tim Beanland, head of knowledge at Alzheimer’s Society said: “Being wrongly diagnosed with dementia is unusual. It is essential that people recognise [its] symptoms … and do not put off getting the diagnosis they need.”
LPT said “The trust has been liaising with Mr Preston. We are undertaking an independent review of the case with an independent clinical witness. It would be inappropriate to comment further until this review has been concluded and shared with Mr Preston.”