Bereaved Story

“I feel the only way my dad would have had a chance was through investigations early in the year when he felt so unwell, and the real symptoms had not presented.”

Today, Kira Davies shares her Dad's story of misdiagnosis that led to his all too early death.

From the start of 2021, my dad did not feel great. He was constantly tired, fed up and had lost his sparkle. Doctors would keep throwing tablets at him for his type 2 diabetes, instead of finding out what was wrong.

All conversations with doctors were over the phone during the first ten months of the year. My dad, who suffered with his back anyway, started developing more severe pain in his lower back and then in his tummy, and he couldn’t differentiate if it was a pain in his tummy or back.

He then started to get full very early into meals and bloated. It wasn’t until a letter was sent to his GP with all his symptoms that he was seen and referred to the hospital for investigation. The hospital only performed a stomach scan which stated that he was clear of cancer. There were two visits to A&E without any real tests done. Then a further endoscopy which again did not reveal any problems. Full bloods were taken, and nothing was identified.

Mid-December, he went private, and they sent him for a further endoscopy which went deeper. On New Year’s Eve 2021, he got a phone call to deliver the devastating news that he’d got stage 4 pancreatic cancer and that it was aggressive. Nine weeks and four days later, he passed away. He deteriorated so quickly that he couldn’t eat, and he became weaker and weaker. It was the worst thing to witness.

I feel the only way my dad would have had a chance was through investigations early in the year when he felt so unwell, and the real symptoms had not presented. He’s left behind his wife, son, daughter, and two grandchildren he adored.