Accident claim news

Personal injury solicitors help man claim compensation

A man suffering from multiple sclerosis has been awarded £10,000 in injury compensation after doctors decided to keep his illness a secret from him for 11 years.

Policeman Gary Dimmock, 42, contacted a personal injury solicitor after it was discovered that doctors had hidden his illness from him by exercising their right to "therapeutic privilege", which allows doctors to withhold medical information if it is in the best interest of the patient.

Gary said that not knowing what was wrong with him nearly drove him to suicide and believes that the medical negligence could have ended his marriage.

He said, "What gives them the right to have this knowledge at their fingertips and withhold it from me? If I'd known at the beginning I wouldn't have taken on a larger mortgage. I wouldn't have had another child. My wife wouldn't have given up work."

Gary claims that when he finally confronted his doctor, he wrote a letter to the neurologist saying, "Can you see him quickly? I think he has guessed."

After finally being diagnosed in 2003, Gary was stunned to see what doctors had written in his notes.

He said, "When I saw the medical notes for the first time I cried. They were littered with references to MS."

Medical experts have stated that Gary was clearly an MS sufferer by 1995 and should have been receiving the correct medical treatment for his illness.

Gary contacted a personal injury solicitor and was awarded £10,000 in injury compensation from East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust.

A spokesperson for the trust said, "We would like to apologise to Mr Dimmock for not sharing with him at an earlier stage that his symptoms may have been attributed to multiple sclerosis."