Claiming compensation for delayed diagnosis of cancer.
Our specialist medical negligence team have won a compensation claim for delayed diagnosis of cancer.
Our client, who had a history of invasive bladder and endometrial cancer, was being treated for leg, hip and buttock pain. She made the consultant aware of her cancer history and expressed concern that she might have a recurrence of the cancer.
A scan was carried out, but the consultant only identified a synovial cyst on a facet joint. Our client was therefore assured the scan did not reveal anything to suggest that cancer had returned. She was told her symptoms were coming from her lumbar spine, and she underwent an operation to relieve those symptoms.
16 months later, while our client was holidaying in Australia, her symptoms had become so bad that she sought medical advice abroad. She was given an MRI scan which revealed a large cystic lesion in her pelvis that they suspected might be cancerous. She was then given an urgent CT scan and a USS, the results of which confirmed their fears that our client was suffering from a recurrence of cancer. Her doctors in Australia advised her to return to the UK as soon as possible.
Not long after our client returned home from Australia, it was sadly confirmed that she had endometrium cancer.
It was later discovered that the scan which had been performed almost two years earlier, did in fact show that a cyst was present and measured 2.2 cm at that stage. The scan also revealed other signs of cancerous growths that had subsequently become larger.
Our client was given several rounds of chemotherapy, but unfortunately metastasis had occurred and they could not therefore offer any more than palliative care.
Our client was understandably devastated, and contacted us for a free case assessment to find out if she was entitled to bring a compensation claim for medical negligence for delayed diagnosis of cancer.
The head of our medical negligence department, Oliver Thorne, advised that she did indeed have a case and took the claim on, agreeing to work under our popular no win, no fee scheme.
Oliver contacted various medical experts who provided supportive reports, and he presented this evidence to the legal representatives of the treating hospital.
The hospital was quick to admit they had made an error in analysing the original scan, but said that our client’s prognosis would have been the same even if the diagnosis of cancer had been made earlier.
We obviously rejected their analysis, and shortly afterwards they made our client an offer of compensation. This offer was declined on the advice of Oliver who thought it was not sufficient.
Further negotiations took place and shortly after our client passed away Oliver was able to reach a settlement that provided a substantial sum of compensation for our client’s surviving husband.
You can read about another of Oliver’s successful cancer misdiagnosis cases here.
