The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A mum says her teenaged son’s life was saved by a Spalding surgery after a hospital missed his cancer diagnosis.
Sam Clark was just 17 when, on leave from Army training, he discovered a lump in his neck which turned out to be stage four Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
But that was only diagnosed after intervention from concerned doctors at the Spalding Surgery based at The Johnson Hospital who got experts in Nottingham to look at his results.
His mum Luan Davis was contacted by them while Lincoln County Hospital was carrying out surgery for what they believed was just an abscess.
Doctors at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Nottingham identified it was instead advanced lymphoma which had spread to Sam’s lungs, chest cavity, breast bone and spine and put him on a high dosage of chemotherapy.
After just five doses the now 19-year-old has now been given the ‘all clear’. Luan contacted The Voice after we reported last week the Care Quality Commission had told Spalding Surgery it ‘requires improvement’ following an inspection.
But she believes without the doctors and staff going above and beyond and making vital interventions, her son might not be here anymore.
“I can’t thank those at the surgery enough as they really did save my son’s life,” Luan said: “They’ve been fantastic.
“Every time I go back I can’t help but tell them how marvellous they are.
“Sam has wanted to be in the Army since he was around nine years old and had been training at Army Foundation College Harrogate, hoping to go into tank regiment eventually.
“Nobody could understand why during his training he’d been getting slower with his running.
“When he was back at home he found the lump on his neck and Spalding Surgery got us in really quickly for tests.
“My nephew has lymphoma and has had two bone marrow transplants so I was worried it would be cancer, but we went round a few hospital wards and there was no urgency as we were basically told it was nothing to worry about and were given antibiotics.
“You know when your child’s ill though and I asked the surgery again.
“It was while he was being operated on for the abscess at Lincoln that the experts from Nottingham rang telling me to come to them.
“They were full of praise for the Spalding Surgery for alerting them they had concerns over the results.
“They still ring to check he’s ok.”
Luan is also full of praise for the doctors in Nottingham, Clic Sergeant who helped fund her travel and her and Sam’s stays in hospital, as well as the Army who continued to pay him until his discharge last September.
Sam is now working at Bush Tyres in Spalding though hopes to go back in the Army, something he can hopefully do in 2025 after he’s been all clear of cancer for five years.
“He’s a lovely, quiet man who’s quite unassuming.
“He never moaned once after his diagnosis even though he had to give up doing something he’d wanted to do almost his entire life.
“The Army is still in touch and he hopes to go back.
“He’s a real trier in everything he does.”
Sam said: “The Spalding Surgery went above and beyond what you’d think and I can’t thank them enough.
“My mum has been brilliant too.”
A spokesman for the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Unfortunately, we are unable to comment on individual cases. However, we would invite Sam to contact us directly if he has anything that he would like to discuss with us about the care which he received in any of our hospitals.”
