Personal injury news

37 misdiagnoses lead to personal injury solicitor consultation

The widow of a father-of-two who died after doctors failed to diagnose his kidney cancer on 37 separate occasions has consulted personal injury solicitors about making a compensation claim.

31-year-old Peter Cura was repeatedly examined by doctors at Medway Maritime Hospital in Kent over a 14-month period after complaining of agonising back pain. But despite displaying all the obvious signs of cancer, having six operations and undergoing numerous scans, specialists failed to diagnose the disease.

Refusing to believe the doctors, Mr Cura insisted on a CAT scan and it was discovered that his left kidney had ceased to function and needed to be removed. It was only after the kidney was taken out that surgeons spotted a three inch tumour.

Further tests showed that the cancer had spread to other parts of Peter's body and, nearly 18 month after first attending the hospital, he was told his condition was incurable.

Talking two weeks before he died, Mr Cura said, "I mainly feel anger with the doctor I was seeing at the time. It crossed my mind that it might be cancer. But when I asked the doctor he said definitely not."

The personal injury solicitor pursuing Mrs Cura's compensation claim issued a statement saying, "It is tragic that such a young man with a family should have lost his life in a situation that was avoidable.

"The care provided by Medway Maritime Hospital was far below what he had a right to expect. One mistake can be excused, but in Peter's case there were a series of lost opportunities when his life could have been saved."