A WOMAN suffered a brain haemorrhage just a month after being told there was nothing wrong because part of her scan results were missing.

Bosses at Royal Blackburn Hospital later sent mother-of-four Hasina Ganchi a letter that said a section of a CT scan was unavailable due to a ‘computer failure’.

Had it not been for this failure, radiologists would have seen she had a brain aneurysm.

The hospital trust has since apologised to the 42-year-old, who said she had suffered headaches for more than a decade, saying it was ‘likely’ that diagnosing her aneurysm would have prevented the haemorrhage.

Mrs Ganchi, of Deganwy Avenue, Blackburn, had a CT scan at the Haslingden Road hospital last July.

She said she was told everything was ‘okay’, but in the August while working at the family-owned takeaway, Funky Fried Chicken in Whalley New Road, she collapsed.

The family has had to close the business while it deals with Mrs Ganchi’s condition.

Mrs Ganchi, who is married to Noor, said: “I have had headaches for 10 to 12 years but I was never referred to the hospital for an x-ray or anything. The medication kept going up and up and they said it was all sorts of things, such as depression.”

Mrs Ganchi who had the scan on July 5, was taken to Royal Preston Hospital after her collapse in August and scans showed she had had an aneurysm, a swelling of blood within an artery or vein.

An official complaint was lodged against Royal Blackburn and the Ganchis met hospital chiefs earlier this month.

She said: “We wanted to keep a record of everything said in the meeting so we asked for them to record it and send us a copy.

“But when they sent the CD, it was blank. It just added insult to injury.”

Mrs Ganchi said she was still suffering severe headaches, but the cause has never been diagnosed.

She said: “I can’t do things that I used to do and I am not myself.”

In a letter sent after that meeting, radiology manager David O’Brien said after the first scan, it was decided a second scan with an injection of dye was needed and undertaken. However due to computer problems, the findings of the second scan were not placed on her report.

He said: “When you had a further scan in August the radiologist referred back to your previous examination and noted that images demon- strated a 4mm aneurysm in the middle cerebral artery.

“While it is not possible to say with absolute certainty whether or not identifying the aneurysm earlier would have prevented you suffering the haemorrhage, this is a likely possibility. Please accept my sincere apologies on behalf of the directorate and indeed the trust for this system failure and for any additional suffering and anguish it may have caused.”

He said procedures had been put in place to prevent it happening again.

Chris Pearson, Chief Nurse at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "Patient confidentiality is of the utmost importance to us so we are unable to comment on individual cases.

"It is always disappointing when a patient feels it necessary to speak to the local press about their treatment.  Improving the patient experience is a key objective for the Trust and all feedback is welcomed, acted upon and learned from.  We take complaints very seriously and always try to deal with them in a timely and sensitive way.  We investigate all complaints thoroughly.

"We would urge the patients to contact us directly and can assure them that we will do all we can to answer their questions."