Man dies unexpectedly after medics 'dismissed his headaches as an ear infection'

A British family have been left devastated and disappointed after their father's bleed on the brain was initially diagnosed as an ear infection before his death.

While the NHS do incredible work for people across Britain, the nature of how busy it is means that some patients can often have their symptoms dismissed until things become far more serious.

We've seen a number of cases in recent years, particularly among young people, where patients have been diagnosed with late stage cancer of the bowel after initially being told that they had something as simple as IBS.

And sadly it was a similar story for 62-year-old accounts manager Paul Camfield, who suffered a seizure that fractured his spine and caused two bleeds on his brain, just weeks after he had allegedly been told he was simply struggling with an ear infection.

It was only after he was rushed to hospital by ambulance that doctors realised the extent of his injuries, which was seemingly kickstarted when he hit his head on a slip-and-slide weeks earlier.

Paul's eldest son Toby was forced into the heartbreaking decision of turning off his father's support.

Paul with his eldest two sons (Facebook)

Toby, a 35-year-old blade technician, told the Daily Mail: “My father fell over on a slip and slide a few months ago and he hit his head. He thought nothing of it at the time.

“Then he began complaining of headaches. So, he went to the doctors and they said, it’s just an ear infection. He took antibiotics for this, but was still having the bad headaches.

“Then, a few weeks later, on June 20, all of a sudden Josh found him on the floor – he had fallen out of the bed and had a seizure. He fell and hit his back.”

The brothers were left frustrated after it initially took three attempts to get an ambulance to arrive at their father's house, while he was also set to be discharged from hospital before suffering a re-bleed.

Toby added: “He was conscious, walking about and talking to the other patients. But he wasn’t making any sense and continued to have the headaches in hospital, and they said it was normal.

“He was in Stoke Hospital for around a week, and was about to be discharged – but suddenly had another re-bleed out of nowhere. He had to be rushed to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.”

The brothers turned off his life support after three days (Facebook)

Toby's younger brother Ali, 33, is now in the process of fostering their younger half-brother Josh, 11, after he was left orphaned by his father's death, as his mother also passed away from cancer at the beginning of the year.

They have created a GoFundMe page, which you can donate to here, in the hopes of raising money to help care for young Josh.

A spokesperson for South Central Ambulances Service NHS Foundation Trust told The Telegraph: “The trust would like to extend its sincere condolences to Mr Camfield’s family following his death on 1 July.

“Having reviewed our records, we can confirm that three 999 calls were made on the morning of 20 June from an address in High Wycombe where Mr Camfield was. All three calls were answered and triaged by West Midlands Ambulance Service before being transferred to South Central Ambulance Service.”