Claiming Compensation for Brain Tumour Misdiagnosis

Can I Claim for Compensation?

In order to successfully claim compensation for a brain tumour misdiagnosis, you need to be able to demonstrate that the care you received fell below an acceptable standard and that you’ve suffered an avoidable injury as a result.

A Medical Negligence Solicitor can help you put together a case based on the effects of your underlying illness and how it would have progressed if the clinical error/s in question hadn’t happened.

However, it may be appropriate to first go through the NHS Complaints Procedure before taking legal action. We can guide you through this process and assess their response to determine whether legal action would then be the right course to take.

If you decide to claim for medical negligence compensation, we can calculate how much you may be entitled to, bearing in mind the severity of the medical negligence and the wider impact on your life, such as any loss of earnings you’ve experienced and the cost of medical treatment and travel expenses.

How Does Misdiagnosis Occur?

A medical misdiagnosis typically arises from:

• A delay in making the right diagnosis
• Making the wrong diagnosis from the right information
• Misreading, misinterpreting or not fully understanding test results
• Reaching the wrong conclusion before all of the evidence is in
• Failing to listen properly to the patient
• Not recognising that the diagnosis doesn’t fully explain the patient’s symptoms

For brain tumour patients, one complication is that the symptoms can often be mistaken for other conditions, such as:

• Stress
• Depression
• Epilepsy
• Vertigo
• Poor eyesight

As a result, a GP may not immediately suspect a brain tumour, and will therefore not refer you to a neurologist straight away or recommend you undergo an MRI scan. This may in some cases be due to a lack of knowledge about brain tumours among some doctors, and as a result, it may fail to occur to them that this may be a possibility.

This is certainly borne out by figures from the National Cancer Intelligence Network, which suggest that brain tumours are much more likely to be diagnosed after a visit to A&E, rather than the doctor.

A delay in diagnosing a brain tumour can have devastating consequences for the patient, such as needing more intensive treatment or even a terminal outcome. It’s therefore crucial that GPs are able to recognise the warning signs straight away and consider the possibility that the patient is suffering from a brain tumour without jumping to other conclusions first.

What is a Brain Tumour?

A brain tumour is a growth of cells that multiply in the brain in an abnormal and uncontrollable way. The type of symptoms depends on which part of the brain has been affected by the tumour, but common symptoms include:

• Severe and persistent headaches
• Nausea
• Sickness
• Drowsiness
• Speech problems
• Impaired vision
• Seizures and fits
• Memory problems
• Changes in your personality

However, it’s possible to develop a brain tumour without showing any symptoms at first, with signs only slowly becoming apparent over time.