This case involved a young mother whose providers delayed her breast cancer diagnosis. By the time they identified the cancer after an extended period, the disease had advanced considerably.
The patient reported breast pain, asymmetry, palpable concerns, decreased milk production, and later skin and nipple changes. Her providers interpreted early imaging as probably benign and recommended follow-up imaging. The core allegation was that, given the patient’s symptoms, clinical history, and evolving breast findings, her providers should have taken additional diagnostic steps earlier, including timely mammography, biopsy, and/or referral to a breast specialist.
Later diagnostic imaging showed highly suspicious multicentric disease with abnormal lymph nodes, and physicians diagnosed invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. Further staging confirmed metastatic spread to the liver, bones, and lymph nodes. At diagnosis, the disease had reached Stage IV, and her doctors no longer considered it curable. The patient required systemic cancer therapy, bone-directed treatment, repeated imaging, radiation for metastatic bone pain, biopsies, and surgery related to hormone suppression and metastatic disease management. Although she has done well on modern therapies, her long-term prognosis remains problematic.
The damages were substantial. The patient was a young parent with two small children who had worked full-time before her diagnosis. After the metastatic diagnosis, she stopped working and came to depend on disability-related income. The case also involved significant non-economic damages, including chronic pain, fatigue, treatment side effects, disfigurement, emotional distress, fear of premature death, and a diminished ability to parent and participate in family life as she once did.
The clinical defendant settled a few months before mediation with the radiology defendants. The confidential settlements totaled $1.8 million.
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