Doctors in Darlington missed a patient's stroke which led him to suffer another one and go blind for eight weeks.

The 75-year-old man visited a GP in Darlington with symptoms of dizziness, light-headedness, and a numb foot, which the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) concluded should have been identified as a stroke, following a report.

However, doctors missed the signs, and diagnosed him with a 'dropped foot', requesting an urgent MRI scan - due to an administrative error, the referral was never made, and the scan never happened.

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Only a month later, the man experienced a blinding headache and diminished vision, leading him to see an ophthalmologist who referred him to a specialist team, where he was diagnosed with another stroke.

A private scan confirmed that the man had had an initial stroke a month earlier.

This experience changed the septuagenarian patient from "an outgoing social person, to a sheltered man living in fear that he is not being looked after competently."

After his second stroke, the man lost vision in his right eye, which he was told could be permanent. Fortunately, sight returned to the eye eight weeks later, but his daughter, frustrated and heartbroken by the GPs incompetence, complained to the PHSO.

The man said that the experience had changed him from "an outgoing social person to a sheltered man living in fear that he is not being looked after competently."

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The man’s daughter said: “We were very lucky that he did get his sight back, but at the time we did not know that was going to happen. We went through all the emotions.

“When you’re looking after someone who’s suffering badly and you find out that they didn’t have to go through that, it makes you really angry.

“The impact on his life has been unreal. He has ‘brain fog’, he doesn’t go out or drive anymore, he feels dizzy a lot and uses a walking stick. It’s heart-breaking to see.”

The Ombudsman found that the initial symptoms were signs of a problem with nerve, spinal cord, or brain function, and doctors should have suspected a stroke and immediately sent him to hospital.

Ombudsman Rob Behrens said, “Having a stroke and then being told you could be permanently blind must have been incredibly frightening. The impact on the man, and his family who supported him through the ordeal, will have been deep and long-lasting.

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“Mistakes like these need to be recognised and acted upon so that they are not repeated.”

The GP surgery has sent a written apology to the family for their failings and distress caused by not sending the MRI referral.

As set out by the PHSO, the surgery created an action plan to prevent the incident from reoccurring, and paid the man £1,200 for the distress and to cover the cost of the private scan.