The 31-year-old woman was 13 weeks pregnant when her primary care physician palpated her thyroid during an office visit in November 2013 and believed that her thyroid was enlarged. The primary care physician ordered an ultrasound that was promptly performed that found five solid nudules in the patient’s right thyroid, ranging in size from 2 to 3 centimeters.
At the next visit with her primary care physician on November 14, 2013, he advised her of the results of the ultrasound and referred her to an endocrinologist. Her appintment with the endocrinologist was the following week at which time the endocrinologist advised her that her enlarged thyroid was benign and was related to her pregnancy. The endocrinologist did not advise her that the nodules could be cancer and he did not order a biopsy of the nodules. The endocrinologist was more concerned that she might develop hypothyroidism during her pregnancy and therefore told her to have blood work for TSH levels during the next one to two months.
The woman scheduled follow-up appointments with the endocrinologist for February and March 2014 but subsequently canceled those appointments after deciding to have the blood work performed elsewhere. The blood work was subsequently done and was reported as normal levels of TSH.
In October 2014, the woman had a growth removed from her finger that was deteremined to be benign but the oncologist with whom she consulted referred her back to her endocrinologist after the oncologist found that she had enlarged cervical lymph nodes. She scheduled an appointment with the endocrinologist who then ordered fine needle aspiration biopsy that resulted in the diagnosis of Stage IV meduliary thyroid cancer in December 2014.
In January 2015, the woman had surgery during which cancerous lymph nodes were removed from her lung, chest, carotid arteries, the base of her brain, and her vocal cord.
The woman filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against her primary care physician and her endocrinologist, alleging that they both breached the standard of care and the such breaches caused a 13-month delay in diagnosing her thyroid cancer during which the cancer progressed from Stage III to Stage IV and reduced her ten-year survival rate to 10% from 85% to 90%. She had three cancer-related surgeries by the time of trial.
The endocrinologist faulted the woman for having her blood work done at an unaffiliated lab, and her primary care physician claimed he fulfilled his duty to the woman once he referred her to the endocrinologist. The jury determined that the endocrinologist breached the standard of care by failing to order or perform a fine needle biopsy in November 2013, by failing to have a plan in place to rule out thyroid cancer, by telling the woman that her enlarged thyroid was due to pregnancy, and by failing to tell her that she needed further evaluation of the thyroid nodules to rule out cancer. The jury determined that the primary care physician breached the standard of care by not communicating with the endocrinologist when the endocrinologist’s report did not address a biopsy and by failing to follow through on a biopsy for the woman’s thyroid nodules. The jury determined that the defendant endocrinologist was 69% at fault, the defendant primary care physician was 22% at fault, and that the woman was 9% at fault.
If you or a loved one were injured (or worse) as a result of the misdiagnosis of thyroid cancer in the United States, you should promptly find a medical malpractice lawyer in your state who may investigate your cancer malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a cancer medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
Visit our website or call us on our toll-free number in the United States (800-295-3959) to find medical malpractice attorneys near you who may help you.
Turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.
