A dad-of-two died after spending around 200 hours in A&E with a misdiagnosed 'stomach ulcer' which actually turned out to be terminal cancer. Danny Johnston tragically passed away on February 17 only a month after being diagnosed with stomach cancer, which the family were shocked to discover had been listed on his medical records since November 2022 without their knowledge.
His devastated wife Charlene, 37 said he had been in and out of the Countess of Chester Hospital with symptoms including vomiting blood on multiple occasions from August 2022 onwards. The 47-year-old father had also lost a huge amount of weight, going from 13.5 to less than 10 stone, the Mirror reports.
Charlene, from Hoole in Chester said she was first told her husband had stomach cancer by an agency nurse at A&E when Danny became unwell after a scan on January 14 and was admitted to hospital. The wife was then told she could not tell her husband about the cancer diagnosis and had to wait until the following day when doctors broke the awful news to him.
Charlene recalled: "He went in for a scan on January 14 and then as he was coming out he collapsed and at that point was really unwell. We went over to A&E as Danny said he wanted to go on a drip and get anti-sickness medication and go home. That was the plan.
"A nurse said 'don't let him go' and when I asked why she said 'do you not know?' and she asked me what I thought it was and I answered that it was an ulcer in his duodenum and that he was waiting for a procedure or op and her eyes started to well up. She said 'you need to know something. He's got cancer'.
"She said she had had a look at his records and he had a scan in November and they suspected he had cancer, with a biopsy confirming this and the scan he was in for that day was a staging scan. No one had told us any of this.
"The nurse then said 'you need to know as you need to make plans'." Charlene said she 'felt sick' knowing her husband's fate and not being able to tell him what was wrong with him.
She said medics told Danny the next day he had cancer after confirming the biopsy results but said they could not confirm which stage it was at. She explained: "They just said it was stomach cancer. We had to wait two or three weeks to find out exactly what it was.
"The scan wasn't read off in time for the weekly multi-disciplinary team meeting and so we had to wait another week. They explained it was cancer and quite advanced.
"He was meant to go to the Christie for chemo but we didn't get there because by this point he was just so unwell. He passed away on 17 February." Mrs Johnston said the family were told that the cancer called Linitis Plastica was terminal on January 24 and had spread to peritoneum and blocked his duodenum.
Charlene said Danny first fell unwell in April 2022 and went to his GP in May and was given indigestion tablets. He was then diagnosed with a perforated stomach which was thought to be caused by an ulcer and since then had been in A&E every single week.
She said that on November 30 2022, Danny had an endoscopy appointment which found no evidence of cancer as the couple celebrated the news at the time. Charlene is now demanding answers from the hospital as to why the cancer was not spotted at the beginning.
She added that she was concerned that delays could have been caused by his consultant being on leave and then off sick for the entire month of December with no one else seemingly asked to take over Danny's care.
Charlene, who is an operations manager for a pharmaceutical company, said: "Danny was treated for a gastric ulcer when it was cancer. By January he had lost about 3.5-4 stone which worked out about a stone a month. He was just skin and bone as he'd lost so much weight.
"We knew something wasn't right but they just kept saying it was an ulcer in his duodenum and this was the reason he kept vomiting and losing weight. At one point I rang his consultant to say I was concerned that Danny was projectile vomiting blood and should I bring him in.
"They said it was absolutely fine and nothing to worry about. The cancer he had was hard to detect but he actually never had any procedures so would have died of malnutrition anyway, even if the cancer was not detected.
"He was in the Countess for around 10 to 12 weeks. They could have done any test they wanted but they left him to suffer. He was failing to thrive and still received no treatment.
"If he had been well and able to eat and digest food then we probably wouldn't have found out he had cancer until February 14. It was only that nurse in A&E who went out of her way to tell us and she was an agency nurse."
Danny, who was on a syringe driver to address pain towards the end of his life was moved to the Hospice of the Good Shepherd for what he believed was for symptom control on February 16. Whilst there, he contracted aspiration pneumonia and sadly died the following day.
Danny leaves behind his wife Charlene who he'd been married to for 19 years and his two sons Kyle, 25 who he had in a former relationship and Harley, 16 who he shared with his wife. Speaking about their loss, Charlene said: "It's just such a shock. You don't expect this at the age of 37. It's hard to deal with.
"I suppose it's still sinking in. He was only told he had cancer on January 15 and he passed away a month later on February 17. We are so glad that our family are being so supportive."
Charlene added: "I don't think he accepted that it was terminal. He thought that he would have at least another 10 years. He wanted his chance at chemo.
"If he'd had the chance to have it and it hadn't worked then I think he would have processed it. I looked up about this particular cancer and knew the prognosis wasn't good.
"For him, it was really important to clear the blockage so he could eat and then be able to attend his chemo appointment. Unfortunately, it didn't happen.
"Even on the day before he died he was asking me to ring up about it and to put it in for that Monday. We'd gone private to and had got an appointment at Christie's on the Monday.
"He couldn't make the first appointment as he was too ill so we rescheduled it for the following week. I know he was too unwell but in his head that's what he was aiming for."
Paying tribute to her popular and much loved husband, she said those who knew him would describe him as 'the life and soul of the party'. She said: "We were opposites. I'm really quiet and don't want attention whereas he would crave it
"He was a real family man and would always help others and get involved in things in the community." Danny's family will be held at Chester Crematorium on March 9.
A spokesperson for the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: "We know that the patient’s family have concerns about the care we provided and our communication with them. We are sorry that this has been their experience and that our services have not lived up to the high standards that we set for ourselves.
"We are actively investigating their complaint and we will remain in contact with the family so that we can address their concerns directly with them."
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