Mother’s plea for spine injury son with 'no form of life'

The family’s ordeal began three years ago when Carson, then nine, woke up one morning with a mystery pain in his back. 

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Ms Madden said: “At that point he was training to go up a belt in karate and the GP put it down to a pulled muscle. 

“I don’t blame the GP at all, but we were treating it as a pulled muscle and this was going on for weeks and weeks and he was getting no better. Eventually the GP was preparing a referral for Carson to the hospital and that was when Carson collapsed in the street. 

“He lost all function in his legs, wet himself, we had to get an ambulance for him, but they sent him home that night. 

“We’re still no further forward from that day to this.” Carson was later diagnosed with Spondylolisthesis, a condition more common in athletes where a vertebrae – one of the bones in the spine – slips out of position. 

It can cause symptoms such as pain, numbness and tingling, curvature of the spine and stiffness in the back. 

Patients are typically prescribed painkillers and physiotherapy to try to ease their discomfort, and back surgery if symptoms are severe and persistent. 

However, Ms Madden said orthopaedic experts at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital have turned down repeated requests from herself and Carson’s father to carry out rheumatology and neurology tests on their son despite extreme symptoms that leave him screaming in pain and sometimes confined to a wheelchair. 

They fear he may be suffering a more serious, undiagnosed condition or complications which have gone untreated. 

Ms Madden said: “Carson has chronic pain. At times he loses all function in his legs, and sometimes his bladder. 

“When he suffers flare-ups they have to admit him to hospital where they prescribe oral morphine, diazepam, diclophenac and gabapentin. That doesn’t even take the pain away – he still screams out in pain with all that.”

“I’ve been begging them since 2016 to get rheumatology and neurology involved. They have refused point blank. I don’t know where to turn, I’m desperate. “

“Spondylolisthesis can cause the symptoms Carson is exhibiting but only if you need surgery on the spinal cord. They keep telling me he doesn’t need surgery, but his symptoms say different. 

“They don’t have any answers because all his MRI scans and X-rays are coming back clear, but we’ve never had neurology or rheumatology look over his case to see if they can find something that’s been missed.

She added: “My aim is just to get my son help. That’s it. I want to get my son sorted because he is a 12-year-old boy with no form of life. He has no social life. We can’t take him to the pictures because he can’t sit too long. We can’t take him to soft play. He doesn’t have friends because he can’t really go to school. 

“He is 12 and I don’t know where to turn – I’m drained, I’m tired, and I’ve got a three-year-old as well.”

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Carson started secondary school in August last year, but was left so exhausted as a result of his health problems that within two weeks he had to cut down to attending just two classes per day.

He has to use crutches to help him walk, but climbing stairs or hills leaves him “in agony”. During flare-ups he needs a wheelchair. 

He had been trying to build up to four classes per day before suffering a major flare-up 10 days ago which saw him admitted to hospital again. 

Ms Madden, who has had to abandon studying for a degree at Glasgow University to look after her children, said Carson was promised hydrotherapy treatment which never took place, and has not had physiotherapy since July last year. 

She said she has “lost trust” in the doctors caring for him after medical records belonging to Carson vanished, and they were told tests to rule out bone cancer and spondylitis - inflammation of the vertebra - had been carried out, only to discover later that they had not been done. 

She said she was left exasperated when medics suggested Carson should see a psychologist because his pain could be “all in his head”, and also attempted to refer her for psychiatric evaluation when she questioned his treatment. 

Ms Madden said: “I do a great job and they are beating me down and calling me an over-anxious mother. Can you blame me for not being cool, calm and collected anymore? I just don’t know what to do.”

In a statement, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “The care being given to Carson is appropriate to the symptoms being displayed.

“This is a complex case and we continue to provide support to Carson and his family to reassure them of the appropriateness of the assessment, diagnosis and treatment being given.”