A medical misdiagnosis led to the death of a “kind-hearted” young dad.
Josh Warner, 25, died from a brain tumor after doctors misdiagnosed it as appendicitis.
After two weeks of suffering headaches and being sick, Warner went to the hospital for a CT scan.
The doctors told him he had appendicitis — despite having no stomach pain — and admitted him into surgery to have his appendix removed.
A few hours after being home post-surgery, the self-employed carpenter still felt sick and was re-admitted to the hospital where the doctors gave him another CT scan.
This time, the scan showed an anomaly on his brain, but the doctors said it was a computer error and released him again.
The young father continued on with back-and-forth trips to the hospital and was turned away over and over.
But when Warner collapsed in his grandparents’ bathroom, he was rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the UK for another scan — which showed the same results as the previous scan from Darent Valley Hospital.
Less than 24 hours later, the doctors at Queen Elizabeth Hospital told him that he had a large brain tumor that spread from the right side of his brain to the back and brain stem, and he was moved to the oncology ward.
Warner had a biopsy on September 5 and was diagnosed with midline glioma, a highly aggressive brain cancer with an average life expectancy of less than one year, according to The Brain Tumour Charity.
Doctors gave Warner three months to live, but he died just 12 days after the diagnosis at Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice.
“Josh was fun, he loved making people laugh. He was a prankster, and had a beautiful soul and a really kind heart and I think that was why most people fell in love with him. He touched people’s hearts,” Warner’s mom, Eve Pateman, told SWNS, adding that he was an amazing dad, brother and son.
“He wanted to share his story as he did not want anyone else to not be believed and he wanted to highlight the symptoms of a brain tumor,” Pateman said.
“He was so very brave, I cannot quantify how brave he was through all of this. He never moaned. I think I would be feeling sorry for myself, but he never once did that.”
A crowdfunding page raised about $24,500 to put Warner through treatment, which will now be put into a fund for his four-year-old son, Andrew.
“It was Joshua’s wish for the money raised to go into a trust fund for his son. It is a really beautiful legacy he has been able to leave him,” Pateman said. “He loved his son so very much and it is heart breaking to see Andrew asking where his dad is.”
Pateman shared that Warner quickly began to work with brain tumor research because he didn’t want anyone else to go through the same troubles as him. “He just wanted to give even during his hardest time,” she said.
Even though Pateman said there is “no question” about the cause of Warner’s death, a medical examiner said a report is being sent to the coroner’s office “to see if there were any missed opportunities.”
The family is in the process of filing a complaint against the hospital that repeatedly turned Warner away, and a spokesperson for Darent Valley Hospital and Gravesham NHS Trust said the case was being examined.
