Misdiagnosed without biopsy

Kansas is where the misdiagnoses occured, but we live in Virginia now.

My wife went to her doctor, in Kansas, April of 2003 for evaluation of a lump in her breast. He took a ultrasound of the lump and determined it was fiber caused by excessive caffeine use. He told her to stop drinking Coke and she did. We moved to VA in July 2003. She went to a new doctor who referred her to a breast doctor and she was then diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in December 2003. The lump that was to have been formed by caffeine was cancerous.

We are comtemplating suing the doctor in cancer since he never even took a biopsy. Do you think we have a case?

EricTDeWitt
What kind of MD 'took' an ultrasound of the breast and who interpreted the ultrasound? Was there any kind of follow-up?
Did the next MD order an ultrasound and if so, was an ultrasound done?
In the interim, were there any other x-rays of the chest?
Is there a family history of breast cancer?
What were her risk factors? smoker? hormone therapy?

All of those questions need to be answered in order to determine if negligence occurred.

Your wife should go ahead and consult with an attorney in Kansas and get the opinion of an attorney.

EC

If there was no improvement in the 3 months after she stopped drinking Coke, there was HER 5 month delay before she sought further advice.
You are going to have a mighty difficult time laying this at the door of doctor #1.

You are going to have a mighty difficult time laying this at the door of doctor #1.

Click to expand...

I agree with vrzirn's statement. For purposes of clarification, the intent of my statement, "Your wife should go ahead and consult with an attorney in Kansas and get the opinion of an attorney." is that you and your wife will have the opportunity to find out what you would be up against in trying to prove the MD #1 is responsible for your wife's developing metastatic cancer.

We had quite a lengthy thread on this issue a couple of years ago. You may be able to find it by searching the topic.

EC

Did your wife ask for a biopsy or a second opinion? Were there any other Diagnostic images, ultrasound alone will show some things, a mamogram and manual exam may show something else, what were those findings? When you moved to VA did your wife consult with a new doctor right away and how soon did they suggest additional tests? Sometimes cancer can spread very fast Usually there is a follow up suggested by the radiologist in 3-6 months with an abnormal finding an no history of fibrous breasts. How many months later was that? Also consider that you moved during that time so there was some stress involved with that and possibly even changes in other factors. I agree that it will be hard to prove the first doctor was at fault unless all your ducks are in a row, then it will be more than one doctor most likely.