Woman loses leg in blunder
A pensioner who had her leg amputated unnecessarily after she was wrongly diagnosed with cancer has won a six-figure payout from the hospital trust responsible, it emerged today.
Doreen Nicholls, aged 72, was told a lump in her foot was cancerous and her leg had to be removed below the knee to stop it spreading. But after the operation at Birmingham's Royal Orthopaedic Hospital she was told the lump had not been cancerous after all.
Mrs Nicholls, a mother of two from Halesowen, has now received an out-of-court compensation payment.
The law firm which represented her, Irwin Mitchell, said it was not the first time mistakes had been made by the pathology laboratory at the world-renowned hospital.
It called for the hospital to ensure lessons are learned.
Mrs Nicholls was referred to the Royal Orthopaedic in August 2007 to investigate a long-standing swelling of her left foot.
Experts decided that a biopsy showed "features of an aggressive tumour" – a soft tissue cancer. But post-operative tests revealed that the swelling was due to a non-cancerous condition.
The former office worker said: "I put my complete trust in these doctors.
"When they told me I had cancer and there was no option but to have my leg taken off, I believed it was my only chance of survival."
Medical negligence expert Tim Deeming said that in 1993 the hospital identified a problem with its histopathology department and a report published in 2001 said there had been a "a worrying increase in apparent errors."
The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said it was "deeply sorry" about the outcome of Mrs Nicholls' treatment but it was in no way linked to the problems in 1993.
