Lee Dunbar with mother Lorrene Bell-Chambers at their residence in Nerang, Gold Coast. Picture: Regi Varghese. Source: News Limited
LEE Dunbar left Robina Hospital eight months ago thinking he had just two weeks to live, only to find out last month the severity of his cancer may have been misdiagnosed.
He has not made a miraculous recovery and the disease may yet take his life.
But doctors now suspect the original diagnosis could have been wrong and Lee’s deteriorating physical condition — he is bloated, has lost his teeth and is unable to walk without assistance — is probably caused by the drugs he has been on for so long.
The 40-year-old former hotel and club manager from Nerang and his mother, Lorrene Bell-Chambers, are angry they have been put through hell, being shuffled from one hospital to another.
To make matters worse, Lee was allowed to “slip through the cracks” of the state’s health system — sitting at home waiting to die, seemingly forgot by his doctors.
After being sent home from Robina Hospital’s palliative care unit last November, Lee was given permanent medication to help ease the pain from his non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other complications that followed his treatment after he was first diagnosed with the cancer in August, 2012.
Ms Bell-Chambers said Lee was diagnosed with the cancer at Brisbane’s PA Hospital after doctors at Gold Coast Hospital could not find a cause for his worsening health.
After the diagnosis he was transferred to oncology ward at Gold Coast Hospital and from there was sent to the palliative care ward at Robina Hospital, until they told him there was nothing more they could do and he should go home and “put his affairs in order”.
MINISTER ORDERS INQUIRY INTO X-RAY BLUNDER
Even though he was regularly visited by community care nurses, Lee said it was not until April this year that one of them wondered why he was still alive and why he was not being regularly visited by doctors.
Even so, it took another five weeks before a doctor did come to see him and order a review of his case.
“They just forgot about me,” he said.
“That’s how I feel — that once I was sent home I was out of sight, out of mind.
“They sent me home to die and now my head is spinning around doing 360s.”
Ms Bell-Chambers has sent a letter of complaint to Gold Coast Health — which has confirmed the case is being investigated.
After hearing of last week’s X-ray record-checking blunder in which 48,000 films had not been reviewed by specialist radiologists, Ms Bell-Chambers said she wanted the public to know of her son’s plight.
She has watched Lee’s health deteriorate because of the steroids he is taking, losing teeth, developing cellulitis and becoming unable to walk without a cane.
“My problem is they left it so long to review him and maybe this might have been avoided, maybe not, but we don’t know because they didn’t bother,” she said.
“Their duty of care once they send them home is to keep an eye on him.”
“The system in itself has failed him.”
Dr Kathryn Turner, Gold Coast Health clinical director mental health and integrated care,
would not comment on Mr Dunbar’s case but said the palliative care team provided support to 793 registered patients in the community.
“Thorough clinical investigations are undertaken of all patients referred to the team, with all receiving co-ordinated services based on their individual needs,” Dr Turner said.
“Gold Coast Health takes all feedback seriously, with any complaint investigated by patient liaison officers within a month as part of our ongoing commitment to delivering better health care.”