"My family have been through months of hell"

My disabled brother was admitted to the Emergency Dept at FVRH last year due to aspirating while having a seizure. On admittance he was scanned and a mass was discovered in his lung and the doctors told my parents that it was lung cancer and he probably wouldn’t survive. He was admitted to B31 later that day. 10 days later my parents, older brother and I were informed by hospital staff that it wasn’t cancer, it was more than likely food stuff which had mixed with his secretions and gathered in his lung during the aspiration. My brother was discharged home 9 weeks later.

On arriving home I noticed that it stated on his RESPECT document which had been completed in the hospital by a doctor with my parents that he had a likely malignancy. District Nurses came in to see my brother and when asked what they had been told re his condition they stated that they had been told he had lung cancer and was basically home to die. At this point he was still really poorly and on constant oxygen therapy. A new palliative care nurse from Strathcarron Hospice came to see my brother. Along with his Community Learning Disability nurse and my parents it was agreed to trial my brother without his oxygen therapy to see how he coped, obviously oxygen was still there if needed. Since that day my brother has had no oxygen therapy as he is maintaining normal SPO2 levels. It was agreed that the Strathcarron nurse and Disability nurse would try and arrange for my brother to have a further scan on his lung to see basically if there was any change.

For months they tried and tried to get this scan arranged, even involving our GP, but nothing was materialising. During this time my brother was continuing to eat, drink, stay out of bed for longer periods and even managed a week in respite to give my parents a much needed break.

However at the start of May this year my mum received a telephone call from a Respiratory Consultant at FVRH apologising because my brother did not have cancer and has never had cancer!! The consultant was apologising for someone else’s massive mistake. Apparently a 2nd MDT review should have taken place before he was discharged. This never happened, if it had then it would probably have been picked up then.

My family have been through months of hell. The toll that this has taken on us all, but especially my elderly parents is indescribable. No family should have to go through this. If it wasn’t for our fantastic Disability Nurse and Strathcarron Nurse pushing for something to get done, then our family would still be under the impression that my brother had cancer.

This is not acceptable from a hospital Like FVRH. If this has happened to us, how many other families has it happened too?

My Care Opinion????

Not good enough, we as a family have absolutely no faith in FVRH whatsoever.