"It appeared the sample was left around for a while"

I phoned my doctor’s surgery in Melling when I was feeling unwell. I was then visited by a district nurse, who took my bloods.

Two days later, I received a phone call telling me an ambulance was ordered and would be picking me up and taking me to hospital. I was told the potassium levels in my blood were “through the roof”, and I needed to be rushed to hospital. I was shaking and very worried as this could have resulted in a heart attack.

When I arrived at Ormskirk, I had more blood tests. To my surprise, the results came back as normal. The Doctor told me that my previous results were incorrect. He informed me that it appeared the sample was left around for a while, which resulted in the raised potassium levels.

This isn't the first time I’ve been told incorrect results. On another occasion, I was told I could potentially have bowel cancer, but again it turned out the sample had been left standing and this affected the results.

I was put through 7 or 8 hours of hell, which isn’t what I need at my age. I called my surgery and they said that they had faxed the results through and that the sample hadn’t been left. However the doctor at the hospital said this was unacceptable.

I would like to know what had happened to my blood sample after the district nurse had visited, and why it was left hanging around for so long.