A breast cancer diagnosis is devastating, whether discovered at an early or advanced stage. The patient’s life has been upended and will now be consumed with doctor visits, tests, and various treatments, for many months and more. What my breast cancer clients have made clear is that early detection saves lives or can moderate the level of treatment required. A missed diagnosis or a delayed diagnosis can lead to life-altering treatments and, also, a shortened life.
When is a missed or delayed diagnosis of breast cancer medical malpractice?
The answer can be illustrated by the story of my client, an exceptional young woman who is currently fighting invasive metastatic breast cancer. Sadly, her fight is the result of the carelessness of her medical practice.
Her story: Feeling a lump
When Molly, in her early 20’s, was home from college she noticed a small lump in her breast while showering. Her mother could feel it too so she madean appointment with their family practitioner. Molly was concerned that she might be exaggerating the significance of the small lump and asked her mother not to mention it. She wanted to see if her doctor would notice it on her own.
“You’re young”
The next day Molly saw the nurse practitioner (NP) at their family practice, who performed a physical, which included a breast examination. After the exam, the NP told Molly that her breasts were fine. Molly then asked, “Didn’t you feel the lump?” The NP said no, and Molly directed her to the point where she felt it. At that time the NP said, “Yes, I feel it,” but told Molly not to be concerned; she was young and had dense breasts, and the lump, which she described as the size of a small pea, was a normal fibrocystic cyst—not cancer—and she sent Molly on her way.
Molly was relieved. Over the next several months, she thought the cyst was growing but she reassured herself that it was just a cyst, and nothing to worry about. So Molly didn’t worry, enjoyed wedding planning, and celebrated marrying her high school sweetheart. However, her new husband was concerned about the lump and asked Molly about it. She told him it was normal and nothing to be concerned about. He pressed her and urged Molly to go back to her family practitioner, which she and her mother did. She saw the same NP who, after mother and daughter expressed their concerns, referred Molly to have a sonogram.
The sonogram…and the diagnosis
A sonogram of the breast is a simple, quick, inexpensive, and non-invasive procedure but offers a good view of the breast tissue. In Molly’s case, the sonographer was instantly concerned. The cyst had grown from pea-sized to close to the size of a golf ball. The next test was a biopsy, which revealed that Molly had Stage IV breast cancer.
Molly was given a prognosis of months to live. Her cancer spread, to her lungs and brain. Molly is now undergoing treatments and fighting bravely, and with the power of prayer and medicine, she’s still with us—but her future is uncertain. Cancer treatment is advancing rapidly. Even invasive metastatic breast cancer caught at stage 4 can still be treated and greatly extend years of life.
A case of medical malpractice
Molly and her family sought clarity. Was this malpractice? If it was, Molly wanted to help prevent this from happening to anyone else. We retained leading medical experts in breast cancer diagnoses. Experts testified in depositions that, in their medical opinion, beyond reasonable doubt, the pea-sized lump that was originally found was early stage and not likely to have metastasized. Further, that had her early stage pea-sized lesion been discovered, it likely could have been treated with a simple lumpectomy—where the lesion (lump) is removed with a small incision in an out-patient setting. Molly then may, or may not, have been prescribed a regime of radiation with or without chemo-therapy; but, her cancer would likely have been cured. Our experts also found that the nurse practitioner’s failure to order a sonogram at the early stage was a violation of the standard of care, that is “what a reasonably prudent practitioner would do in similar circumstances.” Our firm succeeded in reaching a settlement which afforded Molly immediate, timely compensation.
See Medical Malpractice, explained.: causation, standard of care, damages.