‘Louise’,36

A delay in diagnosing an ectopic pregnancy meant Louise endured weeks of ongoing pain and vaginal bleeding and required surgery to remove her left fallopian tube.

Nadia Valentine, a solicitor in JMW’s clinical negligence team, supported Louise and helped her secure a settlement of £35,000 which will go towards treatment to help improve her psychological health following the negligence.

What happened

Louise experienced unusual vaginal bleeding for three weeks and started to develop left-sided abdominal pain. She visited her GP who referred her for an ultrasound scan.

A few days later Louise contacted her GP again complaining of increased vaginal bleeding and abdominal pain, and that she had a positive pregnancy test. She had taken the test at home as she thought she could be miscarrying.

Her GP contacted the Early Assessment Pregnancy Unit for advice, and they suggested Louise repeat a pregnancy test in three weeks’ time and get back in touch if it is still positive, as it sounded like she could be having a miscarriage.

Ultrasound and hospital visits

A week after her initial GP visit Louise went for an ultrasound scan and pelvis inflammatory disease was suspected; the sonographer told Louise that no pregnancy was seen. The medical team booked Louise in for a repeat scan in 8 weeks’ time to reassess the situation.

A further week after the scan, Lousie attended hospital with ongoing heavy vaginal bleeding, severe abdominal pain, nausea and dizziness. A blood test revealed high hormone level (HCG), indicating pregnancy. She was told to come back in 2 days’ time for a repeat blood test as they would expect to see a reduction in HCG if miscarrying.

Worsening pain and surgery

She contacted the hospital with reports of worsening pain and heavier vaginal bleeding. She was advised to attend for further investigation and review and was told to come back if things worsened even more. A scan was arranged for the following morning.

The ultrasound revealed an ectopic pregnancy affecting the left fallopian tube. Louise was taken to theatre for emergency surgery, and her left fallopian tube was removed.

This experience has impacted Louise’s mental health, and she suffers with worsening anxiety and depression as well as symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

JMW’s investigation

Lousie contacted JMW’s clinical negligence team as she was concerned that her ectopic pregnancy should have been diagnosed sooner and she would not have had to endure ongoing bleeding and pain and surgery to remove her fallopian tube.

Clinical negligence solicitor, Nadia Valentine took on the case and was able to establish that there had been a delay in diagnosing Louise with ectopic pregnancy which had resulted in her having to undergo surgery and the loss of her left fallopian tube.

It was established that there were numerous reasons for the delay; for example the advice of the Early Assessment Pregnancy Unit should have been to ask Louise to attend, and there were further missed opportunities to scan Louise earlier and review her blood test results.

Settlement secured

Nadia was able to secure a settlement of £35,000 for Louise. This will help to cover psychological therapy in order to improve Louise’s mental health after such an ordeal.