FAIRFAX, Va. (CN) – A man lost the function of both kidneys because Kaiser ignored symptoms of kidney disease, he claims in a $2 million medical malpractice lawsuit in Fairfax County Circuit Court.

            Clifford Hickman sued Mid-Atlantic Permanente and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States Inc. for compensatory damages for medical malpractice and professional negligence.

            Symptoms of kidney disease include high blood pressure, weight loss, fatigue, and incontinence. It most commonly affects people over the age of 40 and cannot be cured, though medication can help manage this chronic condition.

            Some people experience no symptoms and have to be diagnosed with a blood test, but Hickman says he had most of the symptoms of kidney disease when he went to Kaiser in mid October 2013.

            Nevertheless, Kaiser did not put two and two together until seven months later when a urologist diagnosed him with bilateral hydroureteronephrosis, a condition caused by excess fluid in the kidneys due to backup of urine, according to the complaint.

            Thanks to Kaiser, Hickman says, he has had to undergo surgery and has “a severe, permanent loss of the function of his kidneys.”

            Given his symptoms, Hickman says, his doctors should have known to order blood work and other diagnostic tests. Their failure to do so has caused him to incur medical expenses and suffer disfigurement, embarrassment, physical pain, and mental anguish, the complaint states.

            He seeks $2 million. 

            He is represented by Robert Adams with Gammon & Grange of McClean, in Virginia.