Talk about medical malpractice! A woman in New Zealand died because her doctor forgot to inform her that she had breast cancer. Even though the woman had the life-threatening disease before and was considered a survivor, her general practitioner neglected to read his patient's medical history. Furthermore, he forgot to read the complete report from the radiologist and treated the woman for a shoulder fracture. She wasted precious time dealing with the erroneous diagnosis and when started chemotherapy it was too late.
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The report from the radiologist clearly read that the woman had a shoulder fracture due to metastasis, but the doctor forgot to mention the second part of his patient. He told her she needed cortisone shots to ease the pain of the fracture and asked her to return in a month. According to the victim, the pain produced from the shots was excruciating! Poor woman, I can't even imagine the pain she went through. I'm sure she trusted the doctor and assumed he knew what he was doing. When she returned in a month with the pain intact, the doctor told her to see an orthopedic surgeon so he could treat the fracture more efficiency. Wow!
The orthopedic surgeon diagnosed the woman correctly, but unfortunatelly it was too late. At that point the cancer has metastasized in other areas and it was too big to eradicate. Family members openned an investigation against the doctor and health authorities in New Zealand found the doctor guilty. They asked the doctor in an audit to check his records to make sure he didn't misdiagnose other patients who lives could be in danger.
The irresponsible doctor confessed that he either forgot to read the report or if he did, forgot to tell his patient. I mean, this kind of things makes me crazy angry! I can't believe that someone that was supposed to help and heal that woman actually killed her. He had plenty of chances to review her medical history but clearly never bothered to do so. Now a family and friends are missing a daughter and a companion whose life was cut too short due to pure oversight. I hope they find comfort in knowing that the Department of Health of their country is working hard to try to prevent more tragic cases like this one.
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