"Dying" patient given wrong diagnosis now faces bankruptcy

Patient given wrong diagnosis of year to live now faces bankruptcy

When doctors diagnosed cancer and told John Brandrick that he had less than a year to live, he resolved to make the most of the time he had left.

The 62-year-old council worker quit his job, sold his car, stopped paying his mortgage and dug into his life savings so he could treat himself and relatives to expensive restaurant meals.

He even sold all his clothes but for the black suit in which he expected to be buried.

A year later, however, with no sign of the Grim Reaper coming to call, he went for tests - which gave him a clean bill of health. He had never had cancer at all.

Yesterday the divorced father of two said he faces having to sell his home to rescue his finances and is considering suing the hospital which mistakenly gave him a death sentence.

"We have nothing at all," he said at his home in Newquay, Cornwall. "It's put me and my family through hell."

Mr Brandrick's ordeal began in February 2005 when he began suffering severe abdominal pain and was diagnosed with jaundice.

An ultrasound scan at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske revealed what was thought to be a two-inch tumour on his pancreas.

That April, a letter from his consultant to his GP gave the bombshell news: "The clinical diagnosis is pancreatic cancer. His life expectancy is six months.

"The cancer is progressing. I am sorry to relate that John suffers from such a serious condition. Certainly his life expectancy is less than 12 months."

"It was so scary," Mr Brandrick said yesterday. "Being told about your own demise is the most awful thing in the world.

"It's not something any of us think we'll hear. We all hope to die of old age."

Mr Brandrick decided his priority was to spend time with his partner of 16 years, Sally Laskey, which is why he gave up work, sold his car and stopped paying the mortgage.


Reprived: But John Brandrick says he must now sell his home

Even his winter clothing was given to charity shops as he did not expect to need it again, and the couple went for trips around Cornwall and to visit relatives.

"It felt like I was on Death Row," he said.

"I got rid of everything, all the bric-a-brac around the house, the lot. I just kept my burial outfit - a black suit, white shirt and red tie.

"We loved going to restaurants. We paid £80 for meals, things Sally and I were unable to afford normally."

In all, they spent thousands of pounds treating themselves as well as friends and relatives.

Finally a scan this year revealed the "tumour" had disappeared. Further tests showed he had been suffering from pancreatitis -a non life-threatening inflammation of the pancreas.

It emerged that a biopsy taken soon after the original diagnosis had given him the all-clear but the result was blamed on a sampling-error.

A second test which would have confirmed the finding was never done.

"It was such a relief," Mr Brandrick said yesterday. "But that wrong diagnosis has left me in financial ruin."

He and his partner, a 55-year old receptionist, are now selling their £280,000 house and considering suing the Royal Cornwall for compensation.

A spokesman for the hospital insisted its staff had done everything they could to identify Mr Brandrick's condition correctly.

"While we do sympathise with Mr Brandrick's position, a clinical review of his case has not revealed that any different diagnosis would have been made at the time, based on the same evidence."