Kaiser Patient Claims Botched Diagnosis of Growing Problem

4-9-2020 17:36:00

LOS ANGELES (CN) – Years of inept care and misdiagnosis masked a much larger health problem, a Kaiser patient claims in her Los Angeles County Superior Court complaint.

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Beverly Taki sued Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Southern California Permanente Medical Group and Jonathan M. Wong, M.D., for medical negligence.

According to the action, Taki began receiving medical care from defendant Kaiser physician Wong in September 2014 for urinary issues, including urgency, incontinence and abdominal pain. “Despite plaintiff’s continued, repeated and recurring urinary issues for over five years, defendants repeatedly failed to properly assess plaintiff to determine the root cause of her issues. At no point did defendants ever order a CT scan,” the suit states. CT scans, or computed tomography scans, provide images of tissues, organs and skeletal structures.

Taki’s complaint claims she wrote to defendant Wong  on Dec. 2, 2019, about her concerns that her urinary issues had become intolerable over the past three months, that she was having bloating and fluid retention, and that she was concerned that she might have a tumor.

Wong examined her the next day, diagnosing her with “an overly distended bladder,” and ordering an ultrasound. On Dec. 11, she had the ultrasound, but “Kaiser negligently assessed plaintiff as having no mass or tenderness on her abdomen,” the suit states. “Plaintiff was prescribed Flomax, had a catheter placed and was given assurances by Kaiser that she was medically stable and that it would be safe for her to fly to St. Louis on the following day for business.”

However, on her flight, the catheter stopped working. By the time the plane landed, Taki was reportedly in such pain, with difficulty breathing, that she went directly from the airport to St. Luke’s Hospital Emergency Department, where a CT scan was ordered. According to her complaint, the CT scan revealed a “large 25 x 21 cm mass” in her pelvis that was “consistent with benign or malignant ovarian neoplasm.” This approximately ten by eight inch mass was pressing on Taki’s diaphragm causing the breathing difficulties, the complaint states, and it was also causing her abdominal pain and urinary issues.

The consistent misdiagnosis of urinary issues masked the larger issue of the growing mass, the action alleges, and the resulting inadequate treatment caused “disabling, serious and permanent injuries to her health, strength and activity and great mental pain and suffering and emotional distress,” the suit states. Taki also needed surgery to remove the mass and is left with abdominal scarring.

Taki seeks compensatory damages. She is represented by Jordan R. Magazine of the McNulty Law Firm in Los Angeles, California.