A Western Australian man with a broken neck who was discharged from hospital and told to go home and apply a heat pack says doctors failed in their duty of care.

Electrician Jordan Daly, 26, was celebrating his birthday on February 17 when he dived head-first into a shallow pool.

The next day, he attended his local emergency department at a country hospital in increasing discomfort and seeking painkillers.

Mr Daly said after an hour-long wait, he was given a short consultation and told to "go home and use a heat pack".

CT scans found multiple spinal fractures

The initial X-ray ordered by Mr Daly's physiotherapist did not show any obvious fractures. ( Supplied: Jordan Daly )

On the Monday, two days after the accident and still in significant pain, Mr Daly booked himself in to see a physiotherapist.

She immediately identified he had lost strength on one side of his body — a red flag for a potential spinal injury.

The physiotherapist ordered urgent x-rays, which did not show any obvious fractures.

But a follow-up CT scan identified the fractures, with Mr Daly receiving an urgent phone call to book himself into hospital.

He was immediately placed in a protective collar to stabilise his neck, and restricted to bed until he could be flown out by the Royal Flying Doctor Service for emergency surgery at Royal Perth Hospital.

Mr Daly was airlifted to Perth, and will have to spend up to three months wearing a halo brace, which has been surgically screwed into his skull.



The underground mine worker has since been discharged and is expected to make a full recovery.

Hospital reviewing level of care in emergency department

The WA Country Health Service is investigating how Mr Daly was discharged with potentially life-threatening neck injuries.



A spokeswoman told the ABC the service did not comment on individual cases because of patient confidentiality, but she confirmed the case was being reviewed.

The Australian Medical Association's WA president Omar Khorshid declined to comment while the matter was being investigated.

Australian Medical Association WA president Dr Omar Khorshid. ( ABC News: Claire Moodie )

'Hangman's fracture' caused by extreme hyperextension

C2 spinal fractures are regularly referred to as the "hangman's fracture", often caused by extreme hyperextension to the neck when the face forcibly strikes a hard surface.



Mr Daly said the doctor who gave him the initial assessment told him he believed the muscle strain would be a "three to five-day" recovery period.



"They just said 'Go home. It's going to be a bit sore when you're driving, turning your head, but just keep putting a heat pack on it'," he said.



"I told them that's what I've been doing and he said 'Just keep putting a heat pack on it'.



"The red flag was when I tried to get up from the table and had to physically brace my head and use my stomach muscles to pull myself up. I was in that much pain with my neck.



"The doctor saw that happen and still didn't ask me for scans."

Fractures so fragile 'sneeze' could have resulted in paralysis

Medical experts told the ABC if Mr Daly had so much as looked upwards at the sky and jolted his neck, it could have severely injured his spinal cord.



Known as the axis vertebra, C2 is the second-uppermost of the vertebrae out of the seven cervical vertebrae making up the backbone.



The experts said it could have resulted in Mr Daly being placed on a ventilator for life, as damage to the spinal cord around the C2 vertebra would compromise the nerves that control the diaphragm — the primary muscle to inflate the lungs for breathing.



"It did freak me out a lot. I haven't really processed the fact that … especially being sent home from the hospital, anything could have happened if I had braked suddenly in the car," Mr Daly said.



"A doctor said to me that if I had of sneezed or fallen over, I could have set that fracture off and could have been a quadriplegic or, even worse, it could have killed me."

Lawyer says asking for scans a reasonable step

Aaron McDonald, a former medical negligence lawyer and director of Perth-based Pragma Legal, said there were cases clogging up the courts where professional negligence against medical professionals had been alleged.



Lawyer Aaron McDonald says Mr Daly's case could have been much worse. ( ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas )

"A doctor has got to deliver a level of competence and care that any punter off the street would expect from any reasonably competent doctor," Mr McDonald said.



"They should be examining the patient, looking at their general appearance, asking for their clinical history, looking at physiological data, which includes asking for the scan in Jordan's case.



"Those are really the steps that a doctor in that position or a healthcare professional working in triage should take.



"Jordan's a lucky case because it could have been significantly worse."

Patient believes hospital's triage system should be reviewed

Mr Daly could not fault the doctors and nurses who cared for him after the fractures were diagnosed, but said the hospital needed to urgently review its triage system.



"Is it going to take someone being a quadriplegic before something actually happens?" he said.



"If it had of happened, it would obviously be a massive lawsuit and a much bigger investigation, but because they got away with it, is something actually going to come out of this?

"I think I should speak up about it because I'm hearing a lot of people having the same sort of thing happen to them."