"Misdiagnosis of injury"

A few months ago at Broome Hospital, I visited emergency after I came off my mountain bike and injured my leg & ankle. At the time I felt I was looked after adequately, my ankle was x-rayed and I was found to have dislocated my ankle which also resulted in a break of the ankle. I was put in a cast and sent home and told to present back at the hospital in a weeks' time to determine the next course of action and whether or not I could transfer into a boot.

I was informed the injury was not serious and would be back at work in 6 weeks. I came back a week later for this appointment and was re x-rayed and told all was going well and that I could take off the cast and continue my recovery in a boot. At this time, I believe it was noted by the doctors that I had a large amount of swelling around my calf area, but this was put down to my cast being put on too tight.

Another week past and I was still in considerable pain with a large amount around my calf area. I decided to take myself to my GP to see what could be done. Upon hearing the story of my accident and the conditions around it the GP immediately sent me for more x-rays to my leg and it was found very clearly to be broken just below my knee. I was then informed by my GP that this was a very serious injury and I needed to fly asap to Perth for surgery to my ankle. Of course, this was now a logistical nightmare and as I was not in the hospital system anymore with no help from them, I was left to organise myself (with the help of my GP for referrals etc).

I finally found a specialist in Perth who would see me and conduct my surgery which was not easy as been close to public holidays. I finally had surgery almost 1 month to the day after my initial accident. Now, of course, my rehabilitation started all over again after my surgery. I am now back at work approximately 11 weeks after my accident, every single medical professional I have spoken with (and that is a lot) were, I believe, absolutely gobsmacked that I did not have x-rays to my entire leg when I first presented at Broome Emergency Department as they have all told me that would be standard practice with my type of injury. I believe that if I had had the correct diagnosis from the start, the correct course of action would have taken place and my surgery would have been conducted much sooner, meaning my recovery time would have been much quicker. This whole experience has cost my family huge financial expenses which are going to take a long time to recover from, along with the mistrust I now have the medical system, especially in Broome.