A man in his 90s sought emergency care for numbness and tingling in his legs. The examination and treatment at the emergency department in Lund took a long time, and the man became paralyzed, reports Sydsvenskan.
The healthcare injury could likely have been avoided, the hospital concludes in a Lex Maria report.
A doctor examined the man, but the high workload at the emergency department meant that the complementary examinations were performed a day later. The examination revealed a suspected cancer tumor that was pressing on the spine, but acute surgery was not considered necessary.
The man had sought help at the emergency department for the same thing a month earlier, but was deemed well enough that the investigation could be conducted through primary care.
"The delay resulted in the man's spinal cord being damaged and he became paralyzed from the waist down", writes Skåne University Hospital in a press release.
The paralysis "could have been avoided if the investigation and treatment had been done a month earlier", according to the hospital.
