After doctors misdiagnosed a 53-year-old woman with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) rather than ovarian cancer, the grandmother is now having to live week-to-week.
Beverley Scott of Warwickshire, England, begged medics for a second opinion after being told she’d had IBS for 18 months.
When the mum-of-two was finally told of her diagnosis, she was devastated upon learning that she only had two years left to live because it’s too late to operate.
The former real estate agent took legal action and received £37,500 in an out-of-court settlement against George Elliot Hospital’s NHS (National Health Service). They admitted responsibility and apologised to Beverley.
She said: “l’ve been left to die. I have gone from a girl who was a sales negotiator, full of life, very flamboyant and arty to someone who lives week-to-week not knowing the outcome.”
“There is no more they can do, they can’t shrink the cancer and it doesn’t respond to chemotherapy.”
“It is life-limiting which means they don’t quite know how long I’ve got. I can just about plan what I am doing next week but I can’t plan next year, I can’t even plan this Christmas.”
Beverley first went to the hospital in early 2012 with pelvic pain and stomach bloating. An ultrasound and colonoscopy showed thickening in the mid and lower abdomen, as well as nodularity in the pelvic region near to the bladder, which suggested Beverley had signs of cancer.
She should have surgery or chemotherapy, but she was told the results were normal.
In the next few months, her health deteriorated dramatically – she could barely walk because of pain in her pelvis, and after more tests, she was told she had IBS.
It was an appointment with a vascular surgeon, and then an oncologist who discovered white dots over her pelvic region.
She was diagnosed with stage three advanced peritoneal ovarian cancer in September 2013.
After six bouts of chemo, the cancer was almost completely unaffected. An exploratory procedure showed the cancer had spread and that it was inoperable.
“I went into shock when I was finally diagnosed. It was more of a shock for me to get the diagnosis as I had been led to believe that I was okay,” she said.
“They kept having meetings and I kept having tests but it was lie after lie and cover ups. To have left me to the point that I was beyond surgery is wrong.”
George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust apologised to Beverley in a statement.
Chief executive Kath Kelly said: “On behalf of the trust l would like to convey my sincere apologies for the failure to diagnose Mrs Scott’s cancer sooner.
“The trust expresses its apologies to Mrs Scott for the unnecessary pain and suffering she experienced due to this delay.”
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