$12,000,000 Jury Award For Woman When Doctors Delayed Diagnosis Of Her Breast Cancer
Among the key tools available to assist doctors in saving the lives of female patients is the mammogram, a test that checks for indications of possible cancer in the breast, letting doctors to identify the cancer in its early stages. Still, physicians sometimes misread memmograms by either missing an abnormality that is present or interpreting it as noncancerous. If the physician misreads the mammogram the cancer can be undiagnosed until a later mammogram or such time as a lump is noticed by a breast examination. This holdup may be sufficient for the cancer to metastasize, reducing the likelihood that the woman will be able to conserve the breast or survive the cancer.
As an example, look at the published lawsuit of a woman who went in for a routine mammogram and was informed that there was no evidence of cancer. About two years afterward, she underwent another mammogram. This mammogram was read as displaying no change to the dilated duct from the previous mammogram. Yet, the previous mammogram had not evidenced a dilated duct and consequently the doctors did nothing to look into the suspicious change from the prior, clear, mammogram. Her mammogram was misinterpreted and her cancer was not detected. When the patient went in for another mammogram at a different hospital the following year, the doctor interpreting the mammogram described a number of small nodular densities. The physician noted that these had not changed from the prior mammograms. Still, neither of the preceding mammograms had shown any nodular densities. Once again, her mammogram was misinterpreted and again her cancer was not found.
When she was ultimately diagnosed at a subsequent date, the patient had stage 4 breast cancer that had spread. The main tumor was in the same location where the previous mammogram had been interpreted as exhibiting a dilated duct. The patient initiated a lawsuit against both doctors and hospitals.
The doctor and hospital that read the third mammogram as showing small nodular densities payed out an unpublished amount less that the $2,000,000 available in insurance. The physician and hospital that incorrectly interpreted the earlier mammogram would not settle for the full amount of the policy, offering only $125,000. The case went to trial where evidence was introduced that had the mammogram not been incorrectly interpreted the cancer could have been found while only a Stage 1 cancer, which typically has a 5 year survival rate well above 90%. The law firm that handled the lawsuit reported that the trial generated an award of $12.0 million.
This is a good case to consider for various reasons. To begin, two independent mammograms were misread by two distinct doctors at two distinct hospitals. Also both doctors attributed results to past mammograms which were actually not found in those earlier mammograms. It is difficult to figure out how this might have happened unless the doctors each compared the mammogram they were interpreting to another patient