The NHS failed to put forth effort to find the cause of my constipation for years
Posted , 3 users are following.
My name is Sarah, and I'm 16 years old. From birth, I struggled to pass poo and was almost always in a lot of pain due to what was labelled as 'chronic constipation from birth'. To put into perspective how ridiculously lacking in effort to find the cause of this constipation the NHS actually was; I often went weeks without passing any poo besides the small blotches of overflow that I would often soil my pants with. The longest I ever went without a poo, though other times weren't too far behind, was 9 weeks. Until mid-way through my eleventh year of living a life filled with agonised straining and yo-yo'ing to and from the toilet, I was given movicol and senekot, as well as enemas on a regular basis. Two biopsies were done in the entirety of my life, yet everything came back negative, specifically hirschprung's disease came back as a negative. My parents and I did our own research after eleven years because it was getting out of hand, and I was being bullied for it far too often, and through our own research, we found out about the ACE stoma. We asked at my next appointment with my gastroenterologists if I could have the procedure, and they pretty much immediately said yes if they could get a surgeon to do it. It was almost as if they knew they could do it for all of my childhood (which they ruined due to negligence) but couldn't be bothered to get it arranged or even to bring it up. Anyways, June 5th 2013, I had my stoma fitted, and we were informed by the surgeon that my bowels did present as though I had hirschprung's disease but likely the biopsies weren't done high enough. Now, five years later, I'm still suffering the consequences due to the laziness of each and every nurse that failed me through my entire life. I am, admittedly, much better since I have had the stoma, but one thing they don't tell you about it is that it takes a huge mental toll on you after a while. I now hate having the stoma since I've only had to do washouts through it twice this year and all it's really good for is weeping and being inconvenient, though I've had bowel blockages every few months regardless of whether I was doing the washouts on a nightly basis or not. I wanted to share this story because this potential-misdiagnosis stripped me of any chance to have a decent childhood and has since ruined my life and confidence. Is it possible that I can sue the NHS for neglecting me for over a decade out of sheer laziness, or do I have to live the rest of my life knowing that I'll never get justice for their failures?
2 likes, 4 replies
ptolemy Squirrelicious3
Posted
Squirrelicious3 ptolemy
Posted
I don't even care about the money, because no money on this Earth will ever remove the mental trauma that I suffer with every bout of constipation due to endless pain through childhood and with having to be pinned down for enemas until I was eleven years old. I just want to bring it to the surface, I want people to see that the NHS isn't always right, and that it is lazy, and useless. I want to have them see what they've made through they're corrupted system, which is a child who now has breakdowns every time she gets slightly blocked, can't even go into her own bathroom without remembering all the pain there, someone who's suffering likely will go on for life through memories that they made.
ptolemy Squirrelicious3
Posted
Dirtgirl76 Squirrelicious3
Posted
You've probably done this already, but the first thing to do is get a copy of your medical records from birth to correct-diagnosis (it'll cost a fair few pounds) which hopefully will contain evidence of their misdiagnoses and what you had to suffer with in the meantime (your second post - "being held down" - really reminded me of my own younger days)