Boyes Turner’s clinical negligence lawyers secured a £250,000 compensation settlement for the bereaved family of a young woman whose cervical cancer diagnosis and treatment were negligently delayed.
Following an abnormal smear result, the young woman was referred to the colposcopy clinic. She remained under their care for a year and was then discharged back to the care of her GP who was to arrange a follow-up smear six months later.
The GP failed to arrange the smear within the specified six months. It was 12 months before the follow-up smear took place. The smear results revealed further abnormalities and the young woman was referred back to the colposcopy clinic. There, further delays meant that by the time her worsening condition was diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma, her cancer was too advanced for surgery.
She underwent intensive chemo-radiotherapy, which caused her to suffer radiation enteritis, but for a while it was thought that her treatment had been successful. She was then diagnosed with a recurrence of her cervical cancer, nearly five years after her original delayed diagnosis. She underwent further courses of intensive chemo-radiotherapy but died 12 months later, at the age of 36, leaving two children. This complex case finally concluded with a compensation settlement of £250,000 for our client’s family.
