Firefighter’s life ruined after doctors remove healthy lung
DOCTORS took out a firefighter’s healthy lung after he was wrongly diagnosed with cancer.
Devastated Laurence Ball said his life was ruined by the blunder, which happened after he was told he had a huge tumour and needed urgent surgery.
Months later, doctors admitted they had got it wrong and said the dad-of-three didn’t need the op after all.
Health chiefs added insult to injury by saying the mistake was within an “expected error rate”.
Laurence, 58, who has commendations for bravery, took part in many rescue missions on North Sea oil rigs.
Now he’s preparing to raise a court action against NHS Grampian, who claim the operation and its aftermath falls into “an expected category of risk” and can happen on rare occasions.
Doctors at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary carried out the surgery. The local health board have refused to pay any form of compensation.
Laurence, who lives in Shetland, has, since the operation, suffered an almost fatal pneumothorax, a condition which makes the lung collapse.
He said: “The impact of this on my life and my family is hard to imagine.
“I have lost everything - my job, my health and I have had years of what should have been a happy retirement stolen from me.
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