Woman whose lung collapsed on a night out claims ‘careless’ doctor sent her home after failing to spot warning signs on X-ray
A woman whose lung collapsed claims a ‘careless’ doctor sent her home because he ‘just wanted to get me out the door’ of a busy treatment center in London.
Olivia Smith was glamorous and enjoying a night out on the town, sipping cocktails with friends, when she suddenly felt a noticeable pain in her chest.
The 22-year-old, who had suffered two previous lung collapses, including one where the organ shrank ‘to the size of a testicle’, was certain she was experiencing a third.
But a doctor at an urgent treatment center in London dismissed the social media marketer’s symptoms because she “looked fine” – and could see no obvious signs on X-rays that her lung had collapsed, Ms Smith claimed.
She gave in and returned home, but was forced to return when her symptoms worsened.
Doctors who saw Ms Smith for a second time found her lung had shrunk by 80 per cent and were shocked she had initially been sent home.
Olivia Smith was glamorous and enjoying a night out on the town, sipping porn star martinis with friends, when she suddenly felt a noticeable pain in her chest
Despite being certain she had suffered a collapsed lung, having experienced two more similar collapses, she was initially sent home by a doctor, who did not receive the treatment she needed until the next day. Here she depicted herself using a chest tube to re-inflate her lungs
Mrs Smith, who looked at her first X-ray after being sent home, said she could not understand how the doctor could not have discovered something was wrong with her lung. The image shows her collapsed right lung, circled in yellow compared to the functioning left lung (on the right side of the image)
Mrs Smith’s ordeal began on October 21 as she celebrated her friend’s birthday in Shoreditch.
But shortly after ordering cocktails, she felt a “characteristic pain” that she was certain was caused by the collapse of her lungs, a condition technically called pneumothorax.
“I ordered a porn star martini for myself and as soon as I ordered it I just felt the pain, it came on very suddenly,” she said.
‘I texted my friend, who was sitting across the table, and said I was 70 percent sure my lung had collapsed, but I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone.
“There were 20 of us and I didn’t want all my friends to panic or think I was exaggerating.”
She made a quick exit and went to the Queen’s Hospital emergency treatment center in Romford, east London, run by the Partnership of East London Co-operatives (PELC).
Although PELC is not part of the NHS, it is contracted to run a number of urgent treatment centers on behalf of the health service.
After being sent for an X-ray, Ms Smith said she waited in the ‘overcrowded’ center for three hours before her concerns were addressed by a doctor.
An unnamed doctor told her that scan results showed no sign of lung collapse and advised her to go home and return only if the pain worsened.
Mrs Smith recalled: ‘I felt frustrated, I knew he didn’t know what he was talking about.
‘There was no point in trying to win the battle, and I couldn’t even talk properly. It was 1am, there were people waiting behind me, and I looked good to him.
‘I had make-up on, got up well and put on a bit of makeup. I think he just wanted to fire me.β
She added that his priority seemed to be getting rid of her.
Ms Smith added: ‘This person just wanted me out the door. I was exhausted. I asked him what it was and he couldn’t give me an answer, I just felt defeated.’
Before leaving the hospital, she took a photo of the X-ray.
When she got home, she was shocked that the doctor had apparently missed such obvious signs that something was wrong with her lung.
‘It is clear to every doctor. It’s clearly deflated, he was careless. He just didn’t believe me,β she said.
‘I cried. I had to leave all my friends outside while they were having fun trying to get my lung to heal, and someone tried to tell me it hadn’t collapsed when I knew it had.
βHe didn’t look at the X-ray properly and I don’t even think he knew what he was looking for. If he knew, he would have seen it.’
As the pain worsened, Mrs Smith returned to the Queen’s Hospital emergency treatment center the next day.
The 22-year-old was enjoying cocktails with friends and her boyfriend Callum Murphy, 28, when she felt a noticeable pain in her right breast
She said a repeat X-ray showed the lung collapse had gotten worse and had shrunk to just 20 percent of its original size.
Medics were “shocked” that she had not yet been treated in the emergency department, Ms Smith said.
She was then transferred to the NHS St Bartholomew’s Hospital in central London, where she required ten days of treatment before the lung recovered enough for surgery.
‘I’m grateful for the NHS, but why did I have to deal with a doctor who doesn’t know what he’s talking about?’ she said.
‘I don’t know, but I think I would have had the operation sooner because there might have been a spot available. But I’ll never know.
“This is the only doctor or nurse I’ve dealt with who didn’t believe me.”
Mrs Smith said it was a huge shock to have her lung collapse again after undergoing surgery to fix the problem nine months earlier.
Medics have yet to determine the cause of the social media marketers’ repeated lung collapses, but she said tests are underway to see if it could be linked to her endometriosis.
βMy right lung collapsed for the first time the day after my 21st birthday,β she said.
‘The next day I had a heartache while opening my presents, it felt like I was having a heart attack.’
Mrs. Smith’s second collapse was worse: the lung shrank to one-twentieth of its capacity.
‘The day before New Year’s Eve my lung collapsed again. βI was with my friend and I was talking to my mother-in-law and I suddenly felt out of breath,β she said.
βI went to A&E the next day and my lung had collapsed to five percent capacity, so it was smaller than a man’s testicle, it was tiny.β
About one in three people who develop a pneumothorax will have another lung collapse within a year, according to the NHS.
Pneumothorax can be caused by various respiratory diseases, congenital abnormalities in the organ that only cause problems later in life, or traumatic injury.
However, in many cases it happens spontaneously without any apparent cause.
It occurs when air leaks from the organ and becomes trapped between the chest and lung, preventing it from fully inflating.
Medics have so far been unable to determine the cause of Ms Smith’s condition, but she said she is undergoing tests to see if it is linked to her endometriosis.
Endometriosis is a condition in which tissue similar to that in the uterus grows in places where it should not.
This usually happens in the other parts of the reproductive system, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes, where it can cause immense pain.
But cases where it occurs in other parts of the body, such as the lungs or diaphragm, can cause breathing difficulties and lung collapse.
This type of endometriosis, called thoracic endometriosis, is very rare and women often struggle for years, sometimes decades, to get diagnosed.
Ms Smith said she initially went to the urgent treatment centre, as she had done in the past for previous lung collapses before being referred to A&E.
She has since filed a complaint about her ordeal.
A spokesperson for PELC said: ‘We are very sorry to hear that this patient was unhappy with the service she received at our urgent treatment center and we apologize for any distress or discomfort she may have experienced.
‘We cannot discuss individual cases, but we always strive to provide the highest quality care and all complaints received are thoroughly investigated so that any issues can be addressed and any lessons learned can be fully implemented to drive improvements.’
The spokesperson added that PELC’s urgent treatment center at Queen’s Hospital “can be extremely busy at times, with high demand during peak periods.”
But they added: ‘All patients are medically assessed as soon as possible after arrival so that they can be prioritized in accordance with clinical needs to ensure that those most in need of care can be seen first seen.’