Mum in 'suicidal' pain only diagnosed with terminal cancer after 27 appointments

Louise Muldoon died at 65 and her husband Kevin says she was let down by doctors who failed to spot the warning signs of transitional cell carcinoma even as she became "suicidal" with the pain

The family of a woman whose extreme pain was ignored before she died of terminal cancer have had their complaints about her care upheld.

Mum-of-two Louise Muldoon was eventually diagnosed with transitional cell carcinoma in July 2020, aged just 65. She first saw her GP in January 2020 but despite numerous telephone appointments, a handful of face-to-face appointments, and visits to out-of-hours, her family say medics failed to realise Louise was suffering from something more serious.

She was initially diagnosed with torticollis, a condition which starts off as a neck strain and is associated with painful muscle spasms and the person's head becoming turned to one side. Louise, her husband Kevin, 73, and the couple's daughters Clare and Deborah all felt she had been let down by the care she received and potential red flags were missed, the Daily Record reports.

Kevin took their complaints to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. He said: "Louise first went to the doctor in January and for six months she put up with getting worse and worse. Then on July 13 she went into hospital, it was a Monday. On the Tuesday she had an MRI scan and they then told her she had a rare cancer – transitional cell carcinoma – and there was nothing further they could do.

"Louise was ill-treated and said to me that she wanted to make sure I didn't let it go, so I didn't let it go. The way she was treated at the surgery was the main thing. They never dealt with her properly, they started off telling her to take ibuprofen and paracetamol to see if that would take it away.

"Between January and the July she went from having basic painkillers to oral morphine, and not once in that time did they say they needed to investigate why. Louise was also losing weight and told them she had pain in her neck. Their initial diagnosis was torticollis, and they asked if she had fallen.

"This was just before Covid, they gave her a line and she went back to them again and again. The upshot was that she had 17 telephone appointments, five face-to-face appointments and five at out-of-hours. Eventually she was suicidal with the pain. She was taking oral morphine and it wasn't providing pain relief."

Louise, who was also a grandmother, was eventually admitted to hospital in July but, following an MRI scan, was told she was terminally ill and nearing end of life. She was still in agony and had to hold her head in her hands to help her tolerate the pain.

Kevin recalls a neurosurgeon offering Louise surgery that would help with her pain but warned if she didn't go through with the operation she could be paralysed from the neck down within weeks. After a couple of days' contemplation Louise decided to go ahead with the surgery.

Kevin added: "It ended up she had what they call a cervical occipital operation, and what they did was basically pinned her skull to her neck and her neck to her spine. She got four months after that, then they sent her up to Hairmyres for a blood transfusion in November and she never came back. That was on the Thursday and she died on the Sunday."

Kevin did receive a letter of apology from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde after SPSO upheld complaints relating to his wife's care from March to July 2020, following Louise's referral to orthopaedic services.

Her GP, North Avenue Surgery, also apologised after the ombudsman upheld two complaints against them – that they failed to provide appropriate care and treatment for Louise during the period January 2020 to July 2020; and also failed to provide appropriate care and support once she was discharged home from hospital during the period July 2020 to September 2020.

In respect of the first complaint upheld, amongst the SPSO findings were that "there were a number of opportunities where the Surgery unreasonably failed to arrange face to face appointments, carry out more detailed clinical examinations, carry out more detailed history taking and assessment of red flag symptoms" which "may have uncovered symptoms suggestive of a more serious underlying diagnosis".

And in the case of the second, among the findings were that it was unreasonable that Louise wasn't reviewed by a GP until seven days after being discharged from hospital in late July 2020.They also ruled the surgery failed to carry out a full and proper investigation into Kevin's complaints.

Dr Nicola Donoghue, on behalf of the partners at North Avenue Surgery, said: "We appreciate this has been an extremely difficult time for the family and our sympathies remain with them. We fully accept the recommendations from the Ombudsman.

"We have already taken a number of actions to address the recommendations and the Ombudsman has confirmed they are satisfied with the changes we have made. As part of these actions we have already offered our sincere apologies to the family but will take another opportunity to reiterate our apologies and sympathies."