It started as an embarrassing joke. Shane Barnbrook accidentally swallowed a chicken bone while eating dinner and knew it had to come out.
While waiting for the bone to emerge, his family called him a "pain in the bum". His wife Sarah was 40 weeks pregnant, so she wanted him to be well for their third child's arrival.
Shane, a social worker, thought about going to the doctor but figured he'd be okay. Eventually, half a wishbone arrived. It was painful but not enough for him to think it would make him a quadriplegic.
But over the next few days, Shane felt tired and had indigestion. He planned to go to his GP, then his chest tightened up. He thought he was having a heart attack. Sarah called an ambulance. When paramedics arrived, he had pain radiating down one arm and felt anxious. He told them about the chicken bone he'd swallowed and said he had pain in his rectum.
He was taken to Seymour Hospital, north of Melbourne, where staff recorded "10/10" anal pain, a small amount of chest pain, and shortness of breath. A nurse examined him, and noted his anus was sore, but found no abnormality.
A doctor also examined his rectum, but did not document an abnormality. By this stage, medical notes show Shane was rating his pain a "12/10". Tests on his heart showed no sign of a heart attack.
Something else was happening. It just hadn't been diagnosed.
Despite ongoing pain, a doctor sent Shane home with a prescription for haemorrhoid ointment and painkillers. A day later, he felt so sick he returned to Seymour Hospital. He was cold, clammy, had extreme pain in his abdomen and was vomiting. Within seven hours, he was in an ambulance en route to Melbourne's Northern Hospital for more advanced care.
While waiting for a surgeon to examine him, hospital staff noted his history and queried a "perforation" or "abscess" in his medical record.
A surgical team opened up his abdomen. There were signs of an infection, their notes reveal, but lawyers acting for Shane say the surgical team did not look for a perforation in his rectum.
Following the operation, Shane got sicker, and by the next day his body was in shock due to an infection.
It took another two days for surgeons to open him up a second time. Again, the surgical team allegedly failed to explore his anus and rectum enough to confirm or exclude a perforation.
Around this time, Sarah, still 40 weeks pregnant, was told her husband was unlikely to survive. Shane was critically ill in intensive care and receiving dialysis. She was told to gather the family, including their two young children, to say goodbye.
Shane survived, giving surgeons the opportunity for another look inside his abdomen. It was a case of third time lucky. They found a hole in his rectum and a profound abscess on his abdominal wall which they attempted to treat.
It was the turning point Shane needed to move on from the sepsis that was threatening his life. But when he woke up in the intensive care unit about a week later, he was a quadriplegic. The condition stemmed from "critical illness neuropathy" - a disease of the nerves which can occur after an infection.
While this was unfolding, Sarah gave birth to their third child. It was a bittersweet time for the family. Sarah found herself regularly travelling from Seymour to Melbourne with an infant and their two young children to support Shane.
He remained at the Northern Hospital for a year and then spent three more years in rehabilitation and a nursing home before returning home this year. He remains a quadriplegic with less than 50 per cent movement in his arms and legs.
Shane is now suing the two hospitals that cared for him, alleging they did not listen to him and act fast enough to detect and repair the rectum perforation. Had it been treated faster, a writ in the Supreme Court says, he would have made a full recovery.
"This is a tragic case. It illustrates the catastrophic and life-changing consequences that can stem from medical errors," said Tom Ballantyne, a principal at Maurice Blackburn acting for Shane.
"There were numerous opportunities to make the correct diagnosis and intervene, but instead, events have snowballed to the point where Mr Barnbrook now has a severe and life-long disability."
Spokespeople for the two hospitals declined to comment.
Shane said he hoped hospital workers would learn from his story and that people would go to the doctor for embarrassing problems like the one he initially faced.
"Don't be a typical male. Go to the doctor," he said. "It's not worth it."