But Leibbrandt did not hear back from the doctor about those results, and after two weeks, he checked his patient portal app where he found the results had been uploaded.<\/p>\n
At the top of the second scan report, it noted a \u201cfocal aneurysmal dilatation of the left common iliac artery measuring 40mm\u201d \u2013 something requiring urgent medical attention.<\/p>\n
Having heard nothing from his doctor regarding these results, he called to make a follow-up appointment, and was given one with a doctor from Auckland through telehealth.<\/p>\n
This doctor also read the report and said he saw nothing remarkable \u2013 until Leibbrandt pointed out the note.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Just read the report from the top.\u2019 And it went quiet. And then he came back and he said… \u2018I\u2019ll refer you to a vascular surgeon\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the interim, he made two trips to the ED for sudden pain. On one occasion, an ultrasound showed the aneurysm clearly, and the radiologist remarked that she hoped he was seen for that soon.<\/p>\n
He underwent surgery in June and was now recovering at home.<\/p>\n
In total, the delays to his diagnosis contributed to a wait time of nearly a year.<\/p>\n
Living Waters did not respond to RNZ\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Disappointed by the care he had received, Leibbrandt wrote to Living Waters in July 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it not your policy to follow up with patients when they receive any results either to inform them that everything is okay or otherwise?\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
He initially received an apology for the delay in responding later that month, but the letter did not include an apology for misreading his scan results.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there is no evidence that your care was not clinically actioned, we accept that your experience of the communication and follow-up was not optimal,\u201d the practice said in a letter.<\/p>\n
Leibbrandt followed up and asked for his appointment fee to be refunded, and requested a further apology.<\/p>\n
Eventually, in July this year, his appointment fee was refunded and an apology issued for the failings in healthcare \u2013 again, nearly a year since he first made the complaint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sincerely apologise that your complaint was not responded to in a timely manner,\u201d the practice says in a second letter, dated July 3, 2026. \u201cThat should not have occurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving reviewed the position so far, we have identified that your complaint and the follow-up actions were not appropriately managed or handed over by the staff responsible at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
There had since been staffing changes at the practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiving Waters Medical accepts responsibility for that failure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leibbrandt also informed the Health and Disability Commissioner of his situation, and asked it to look into how it had happened.<\/p>\n
But the HDC said it closed this complaint when Leibbrandt accepted the clinic\u2019s second apology, and told them he wouldn\u2019t be taking the complaint further.<\/p>\n
Rather than compensation, Leibbrandt was seeking assurances this would not happen again.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy concern is that other people would not do what I did and not see their report,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But Leibbrandt did not hear back from the doctor about those results, and after two weeks, he checked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[48289,4809,29365,818,12686,5149,102,2960,112279,2699,237201,52478,237200,122011,18577,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-716567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-aneurysm","tag-by","tag-ct","tag-doctors","tag-finds","tag-green","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-kate","tag-man","tag-missed","tag-own","tag-reviewing","tag-scan","tag-two","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}