The injury
As a result of the incorrect reporting of her smear test results our client, Ms X developed cervical cancer resulting in a radical hysterectomy followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Fortunately, Ms X’s treatment was successful, and her cancer was cured.
However, the cancer left her infertile, and she had wanted a third child from her treatment. She experienced early menopause and needed HRT. The chemoradiation treatment left her with some gastrointestinal problems including urgency with bowel movements and frequent diarrhoea. She experienced shooting pain when urinating; pain in her groin and some numbness in the top of her legs. She also experienced some psychological symptoms as a result of the trauma of the diagnosis and implications of this.
What happened to our client
Ms X attended her first routine smear test and was advised that the result was normal.
3 years later, Ms X attended her second routine smear test and was advised that the result was normal.
The following year (4 years after the original smear), Ms X noticed
- post-coital bleeding
- continuous vaginal bleeding.
Ms X attended appointments at her GP surgery on 3 occasions with this complaint over a period of 8 months.
Ms X’s previous smear test results were reviewed, and she was informed that the bleeding was most likely a combination of her contraceptive pill and having had children.
Ms X was referred by her GP via the two-week wait referral service to the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust where she underwent a cervical biopsy and was diagnosed with a squamous cell Cervical cancer.
Ms X underwent:-
- radical hysterectomy
- removal of the fallopian tubes
- removal of lymph nodes.
- chemotherapy and radiotherapy
At a meeting to review her previous smear test results Ms X was informed that both her smear test results (taken 3 years apart) had been misread.
Both should have been reported as abnormal.
Negligence was admitted and compensation paid to Ms X.
