Failure to Diagnose a Fracture Compensation Claims

If a delayed diagnosis of a fracture has caused you undue suffering or resulted in complications occurring, you may be able to make a successful failure to diagnose claim.

Failure to diagnose a fracture can have serious consequences but you must be able to show that those responsible for your care missed an opportunity to accurately diagnose you. Fracture misdiagnosis claims are all different and, as a result, how this is demonstrated can vary.

Fracture misdiagnosis compensation takes your personal experiences into account when deciding on the financial amount given. For this reason, it’s impossible to say how much your misdiagnosed fracture lawsuit could be worth without first speaking to you.

When you choose to work with Your Legal Friend, we’ll take the time to listen to you. Backed by years of experience, our fracture misdiagnosis lawyers will use their skills to give your case a value.

All medical negligence claims must be made within a three-year timeframe. This time limit starts from the point that your first realised you had been let down by those responsible for your care.

If you do not claim within the set time period, your claim will be considered ‘statute barred’ or ‘out of time’ and will unfortunately not be taken further. There are two exceptions to this rule, in the case of children and if the negligence directly led to a fatality. In these cases suing the NHS for negligence is still possible as the date on which time begins to run is the date of the child’s 18th birthday, and in the case of fatalities, from the date of death.

Whatever the nature of your fracture claim, we always seek the maximum level of compensation for our clients – and if your case is unsuccessful, we don’t charge you any fees. This is our guarantee for all standard fracture claims.

With our no win, no fee guarantee, you pay nothing, unless you win your compensation claim. At that point, you will only pay your insurance premium, if applicable, and the success fee, which will never be more than 25% of the amount you win.

Fractures to the scaphoid often occur as a result of a fall on to an outstretched hand, where the impact of the fall forces the hand and wrist back.

Difficulties in detecting scaphoid fractures have been widely reported as they are hard to diagnose because the bone is inside the joint. Misdiagnosis sometimes happens because of a lack of swelling and no visible injury.

A missed scaphoid fracture can lead to serious problems including:

• Reduced grip and range of motion.
• Failed or delayed fusing together.
• Osteoarthritis.
• Disruption of the blood flow causing the bone to die

A fracture occurs when excessive force is applied to the bone, resulting in it breaking or shattering. This can happen from simply falling over to being involved in a serious accident. Bones are usually strong and will typically absorb pressure when force is applied, where the force exceeds the amount of pressure a bone can withstand, a fracture occurs.

Common ways bone breakages can occur include:

• Vehicle collisions
• Sporting injuries
• Falling from height
• A heavy object falling onto the bone

Some people are more susceptible to a fracture. For instance, those with osteoporosis, a disease that weakens the bone, are more likely to sustain a fracture, even when limited force is applied. Children are also more likely to break their bones, as they are still developing.

The most common symptom of a fracture is pain. Most people that suffer from a fracture experience pain in the bone and surrounding area. When the fracture occurs, you may be able to hear a popping or snapping sound.

Other symptoms of a fracture may include:

• Swelling
• Bruising 
• Bleeding
• Dislocation, deformity or twisted appearance.
• Numbness
• Paralysis
• Weak pulse below the fracture

If you’ve experienced a compound fracture, where the bone breaks through the skin, you will also be left with an open wound, where the bone may protrude.

The most common way for a broken bone to be diagnosed is through an x-ray. This will give medical professionals an image to assess how severe the fracture is.

In most cases, where the fracture is only minor, treatment will make sure the bones are in the correct position and allow them to heal naturally, sometimes with the aid of a splint, brace, or cast. Where fractures are more severe, surgery may be needed to insert metal rods or plates that will hold the pieces of bone together.

In most cases, an x-ray will clearly show where a fracture has occurred. But that doesn’t mean that misdiagnosed fracture cases don’t happen.

While some fractures are easy to identify, others can be mistaken for a sprain and an x-ray may also not be conducted. If this has been the case it can lead to treatment being significantly delayed, potentially leading to long-term issues. Even if an x-ray is undertaken the results can occasionally be misinterpreted, especially if the fracture has occurred in small bones or an area that is difficult to see, such as the pelvis, wrist or hip, leading to fracture misdiagnosis cases.

Where a late fracture diagnosis has occurred, it’s possible for complications to develop. The misdiagnosis of a fracture can not only mean that the recovery process is longer but can lead to other, long-term conditions developing that may also need further treatment.

Among the conditions that can develop after a wrong fracture diagnosis are:

• Compartment syndrome– This is a painful condition when pressure within the muscles builds, which can decrease blood flow. If left untreated it can cause permeant tissue damage, resulting in numbness, paralysis, and, in rare cases, the need for amputation.
• Fat embolism– Bone breakages can cause fat tissue from the bone marrow to enter your bloodstream. In most cases, this doesn’t result in any complications. However, where multiple bones or a large bone has broken it can lead to potentially life-threatening fat embolism.

In many cases, a misdiagnosed fracture isn’t linked to another serious condition but the symptoms are instead dismissed as a minor bump or sprain. This is more likely to happen if you’ve experienced an incomplete fracture or a fracture in a part of the body that is difficult to assess, as the results of an x-ray will be less obvious.

A missed fracture diagnosis can lead to longer recovery periods, as patients may continue to use the area rather than resting, and in some circumstances, a wrong diagnosis fracture can lead to long-term complications. If you have experienced an A&E or GP misdiagnosis fracture that has affected how you recovered, you may be able to make a claim for compensation, reflecting the pain and suffering that the delay in vital treatment has caused.

There aren’t any official statistics showing the percentage of facture misdiagnosis in the UK. However, research in the British Medical Journal found that junior doctors miss around a third of abnormalities on x-rays, it’s findings led to some hospitals introducing a new process to ensure specialists review x-ray results. The findings highlight how it’s possible for a delay in fracture diagnosis to occur within hospitals.

Among the most common reasons for missing a fracture are misreading the results of tests or a failure to perform radiography.

• Symptoms not commonly seen with a fracture - your description of the accident and symptoms presented do not automatically suggest to the examining doctor that a fracture has occurred.
• No X-ray was taken.
• X-ray was incorrectly taken - your X-ray may not have been taken at the right angle to detect the fracture leading the doctor to believe a fracture has not occurred despite the symptoms.
• Fracture hard to see on the X-ray -  up to nearly a third of fractures in the bones of the hip and pelvis can fail to be spotted by an X-ray.
• X-ray results not passed on to the doctor.
• No further investigation by a CT or MRI scan.
• An inexperienced doctor - A&E patients are most likely to be seen by junior doctors working at evenings and weekends at one in five A&E departments.

Fractures are a common medical issue in the UK, with around 1% of the population experiencing breaking a bone every year.

• Around 50 per cent of the 20 million-plus visits to A&E involve having an X-ray, mostly to check for bone injury.
• One in four NHS radiology departments took more than 30 days to assess 80,000 X-rays by a radiologist. (NHS survey, 2014)
• An estimated 300,000 patients are waiting more than a month for their X-rays to be analysed. (Royal College of Radiologists, 2014)
• Patients whose X-rays were checked by a specialist before they left A&E were three times less likely to have a missed fracture. (University of Bradford School of Health Studies, 2013)                                                                   
• Junior doctors in A&E miss up to 39 per cent of ‘clinically significant abnormalities’ on X-rays. (Study, British Medical Journal