Article: Mother-of-two, 57, was bedridden for two years after GP dismissed signs of brain tumour as menopause

[Sly Saint]

Daily Mail

A woman has claimed doctors dismissed her fatigue and vision problems as being related to depression, menopause or fibromyalgia—but after being bedbound for two years, discovered they had been symptoms of a brain tumour.

Karen Tait, 57, a former office manager from Fakenham in Norfolk suddenly began feeling hot, achy, clammy and fatigued in October 2022.
Within weeks, she suffered blurred vision and found it difficult to focus or look at bright lights.

She also developed a severe sensitivity to smells and noise, and gradually her legs 'hurt so much' that she became bed bound.

Mrs Tait said: 'One day, I went to bed, and I didn't get out of bed again for two years.

'I also had what I describe as concrete neck. I felt I couldn't lift my head. I also suffered with insomnia.'

It wasn't until 2024, when she was 'too ill' to attend a routine MRI scan to check for signs of vaginal cancer, a disease she had previously overcome, that her gynaecologist booked her in for an MRI scan while under sedation.

These tests revealed she had a non-cancerous type of tumour called a meningioma in her brain, and she underwent surgery to remove it.

MSN

 

[rvallee]

The total indifference to those mistakes is so baffling. It's like they don't even want to improve. If psychosomatic ideology were almost anything else, it would have been banned with prejudice decades ago. But it's basically acting out like the shitty nepo baby of a dictator allowed to rampage anything and anyone because it has total impunity.

 

[bobbler]

The total indifference to those mistakes is so baffling. It's like they don't even want to improve. If psychosomatic ideology were almost anything else, it would have been banned with prejudice decades ago. But it's basically acting out like the shitty nepo baby of a dictator allowed to rampage anything and anyone because it has total impunity.

And yet thank goodness for her gynacologist who by the sounds of it was able to put the pieces together, given she had previously had cancer in another part of her body

It does make you wonder about what they have turned the GP role into in the UK and how by such deliberate redesign over those years (which include the tenure of certain individuals in certain positions) the very bit of the system that it was designed to be able to 'catch' is the very part that got designed out

And we all know that has happened by design because of all the 'triage' and encouraging of 'treat individual symptoms instead of find the cause' and indeed pathways and guidelines that are internal to GPs (rather than coming from hospitals or Nice guidance for conditions they could be indicating) shoving 'if you have that one symptom follow this decision chart' combining up with 'one complaint at a time only' appointments.

Of course that is before you are unlucky enough that said symptoms might be things like exhaustion or headaches or sweating although who knows which symptoms actually are treated as symptoms with respect assuming noone either enjoys GP phone queues and waiting rooms or has the time or will to add that chore in 'because they are feeling a bit under the weather' - a big thing on your skin or would that be dismissed as 'could have been caused by nothing'? I'd guess you'd hope maybe heart things, and if you are lucky with a decent GP then perhaps persistent and dramatic enough coughs?