Lab error 'led to shattered life'

By Tanya Gupta
BBC News Online, South East

Mr Brant, now back up to 11 stone, says he still suffers

It seemed like a minor irritation when Alan Brant found he had difficulty swallowing.

He went to his GP thinking it was an easy complaint to treat - an opinion confirmed by his doctor who said it was a common problem.

All that was necessary was a small biopsy and probably minor surgery.

But a lab blunder during routine tests led to him being told he had cancer - a diagnosis that was to force him to suffer a 10-hour operation which would later cost him a relationship and even affect the small design firm he works for.

Instead of undergoing the routine minor surgery to remove the benign lump in his throat, Mr Brant had most of his oesophagus, the top of his stomach and his spleen removed.

He was also given the devastating prognosis that if he did not have the surgery, he probably had as little as three months to live.

The hospital admitted full liability and apologised for the mistake - but five years later Mr Brant is still living with the effects.

Mr Brant said he felt completely fine before his operation

His swallowing problems, which were rare at first, started more than 10 years ago.

He went to his doctor when it started happening once a month, and was referred to St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, where he was examined using an endoscope.

It was afterwards, when a routine biopsy was carried out, that a pair of contaminated forceps led to his diagnosis of cancer.

Mr Brant, from Woking, Surrey, had started a new relationship with a woman in Scotland after separating from his wife - he was called in for surgery on 28 December 2000, the same day his decree absolute arrived.

The physical and emotional after-effects began immediately after his surgery.

He said he was left with "twisting, red-hot poker pain", hallucinations that flies were crawling on the hospital walls which he blamed on the morphine, and paranoid delusions that intensive care staff were trying to kill him.

Mr Brant's weight plummeted from a robust 13-stone to an enfeebled nine stone.

Then, when he went home, his relationship foundered.

"It destroyed my personal life," he said.

"My relationship went completely sour. I was bottling it up. I became defensive about things. I was argumentative and touchy."

'Unclean forceps'

On 8 February, 2001, his 51st birthday, he returned for his post-operative results - a meeting attended by his surgeon and a hospital director.

The good news was the father-of-two was recovering well - the bad news was there were never any signs of cancer in the first place.

"The surgeon said we haven't any indication of cancer and I thought 'brilliant'," Mr Brant said.

"Then he said there had been a mistake - they had transferred the sample to the slide with unclean forceps.

"Even then I walked out and said 'ok, fine, that's what happened'.

Mr Brant started a new relationship after the operation

"But then things started going wrong - after-effects of the operation which I will have for the rest of my life."

Three months later, he caught pneumonia which he claims was a direct result of the operation, and which left him unable to return to Scotland to patch up his relationship.

"I was coughing up black fluid. Under my diaphragm there was an abscess the size of a football. I lost a third of my body weight."

That June he returned to work as a designer to find his employer in Sevenoaks, Kent, had been unable to fill his position while he was away, and was losing clients - they had even had to shed some jobs because the work had drained away.

Cold sweats

When the physical after-effects became apparent, he turned to the lawyers.

The hospital had already admitted its mistake, but the legal case lasted four years because of negotiations over the payout which was more than £190,000.

After the settlement, Glenn Douglas, Chief Executive of Ashford and St Peter's NHS Trust, said: "We are deeply sorry that a mix-up in our pathology laboratory caused this problem.

"We recognised the problem, were open with Mr Brant and we have accepted liability.

"Mistakes of this type are rare. Since 2000 we have invested £1.7m in our pathology service and put new systems in place to prevent this from happening again."

Mr Brant is due to meet the chief medical officer when he will call for action to ensure his situation is avoided in the future.