Grandmother, 72, loses leg after hospital misdiagnosis

Doreen Nicholls, 72, had her healthy leg amputated below the knee after she was wrongly told she had cancer.

The grandmother was told by doctors she had an extremely rare form of cancer, and that without a leg amputation she would die.

She underwent the surgery in 2007, and now needs a wheelchair to travel anything more than a short distance. Tests carried out after the operation revealed that her leg, which had been cut off below the knee, was healthy all along.



She says that the misdiagnosis, at Birmingham's Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, has destroyed her life.

The specialist hospital has refused to accept it was negligent in its treatment of Mrs Nicholls, but it has agreed to pay her an out of court settlement which her lawyers described as a "substantial six-figure sum".

Mrs Nicholls, of Halesowen, near Birmingham, said: "I shall never forgive the hospital for what they've done to me. I just want my leg back, money doesn't mean a thing."

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