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Misdiagnosis of terminal lung cancer

The Claimant was 58 years old at the time of the misdiagnosis of lung cancer. The Teaching hospital failed properly to investigate his complaints of night sweats and recurrent cough. An x-ray of chest showed a lesion in his lung, which was believed to be cancerous but no proper tests or investigations were performed despite a request from one of the radiologists to investigate for an infectious lesion.

Misdiagnosis of cancer

An erroneous diagnosis of terminal cancer was made and the client was discharged home in to the care of the MacMillian nurses in the belief that he had less than 6 months to live. The client had suffered from a relatively benign chest condition for approximately 20 years and as a result had a morbid and documented fear of cancer. He was particularly vulnerable to a bad reaction to advice that he had terminal cancer.

The client continued to be reviewed by the hospital's medical staff for the next 8 months. He was informed at the last review appointment that he did not have a terminal illness and that he was not going to die.

For 8 months the client lived with the onerous and oppressive belief of an imminent and painful death. This belief began to absorb all his waking hours and also led to significant sleep disturbance. He suffered a chronic major depressive illness with prominent anxiety of such severity as to lead to loss of his employment.

Cancer misdiagnosis

Once the benign nature of his condition was confirmed, the client was still dogged by negative and deeply disturbing thoughts to the extent that when he tried to return to work some two months after being told of the misdiagnosis, he found himself completely unable to do so.

Proceedings were issued. Some months later, the Defendant made a derisory offer to settle, which was rejected by the Claimant. The Defendant made a payment into Court in the sum of £120,000, which was accepted by the Claimant.

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