A GRANDMOTHER is suing Southend Hospital after doctors failed to spot her fractured elbow for six days.

Shirley Johnstone visited A&E after waking up in agony, but doctors diagnosed the pain in her right arm as a sprain and sent her home with painkillers.

Doctors only realised she had a fractured elbow six days later, when her X-ray was reviewed.

Mrs Johnstone, 60, has now instructed law firm Slater and Gordon to sue the hospital, claiming her injuries became much worse as a result of the delay.

The firm alleges a further Xray showed the fracture had displaced by four millimetres in the time between her first visit to A&E and when doctors finally realised their mistake, causing the married grandmother-ofeight to require surgery.

The chef, from New Road, Great Wakering, needed wires inserted into her arm to hold the bones in place and four months off work.

Mrs Johnstone said: “I woke up and was in a lot of pain one morning. At first I thought I’d slept awkwardly, but it was absolute agony. I decided to go to hospital to get it checked out, just in case.

“I had an X-ray done and the doctor said nothing was broken and I should take some painkillers and go home.

“You trust they know what they’re doing so despite the pain that’s what I did.”

Having been reassured her she just had a muscular injury, she was shocked to receive a phone call from the hospital to tell her she had fractured her olecranon – the bone that forms the tip of the elbow.

She said: “I’m worried the break got worse in those days before it was properly diagnosed and treated. I was told by one of the doctors these things happen, that these sorts of things can get missed.

“I was really surprised something as serious as a break could be missed. I’m a chef and it’s important I can use my right arm.

“As a result of this injury I’d had to take a lot of time off work.

“I still get a lot of pain in this arm.”

Mrs Johnstone’s lawyer, Rebecca Campbell, a clinical negligence specialist at Slater and Gordon, said: “The hospital recalled her once the mistake had been identified.

“But in the intervening six days we believe her injury became worse and as a result she required surgery which we allege would not have been required if she had been treated when she first attended A&E.”

Cheryl Schwarz, acting chief nurse at Southend University Hospital said: “I wrote to Mrs Johnstone in December 2014 offering our apologies for the failure to diagnose and treat her fracture in 2011. I reassured Mrs Johnstone that we hold regular teaching sessions to learn from incidents such as these and to minimise the risk of the same mistake happening again.

“Mrs Johnstone’s claim against the trust is on-going and so I am unable provide any further comment on her case.”