Man broke neck: sent home
2009-06-21 14:12
Sydney - An Australian hospital apologised on Sunday after a man was told to go home and take headache tablets even though he was suffering a broken neck that could have paralysed him at any moment.
Sydney-based Paul Curtis said he was lucky not to be a paraplegic after the mix-up last month at Ryde Hospital in the city's north.
The 31-year-old went to the emergency ward late on a Friday night suffering severe pain after accidentally clashing heads with a friend.
He was told the X-ray department was closed and he should go home and take some paracetamol.
Curtis followed the advice but returned to the hospital on Monday morning after suffering an agonising weekend only to find that a bone was broken in his neck, threatening to sever his spinal cord.
"They X-rayed me and they said, 'Do not move, you have a broken neck'," he told reporters.
Curtis underwent surgery and faces months of rehabilitation wearing a neck brace.
"When the doctor told me 'you're lucky to be alive, you're lucky not to be a paraplegic', that really rattled me a bit," he said.
The head of Ryde Hospital's emergency department Peter Roberts said late-night procedures for patients needing X-rays would be reviewed in light of the case.
"On behalf of Ryde Hospital we do apologise to Paul Curtis," Roberts told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
He said that in future, patients with similar symptoms would be X-rayed.
- SAPA