Docs Missed Wife's Lung Cancer, Husband Says

2-15-2013 14:29:00

(CN) - A man says Kaiser doctors repeatedly missed a one inch tumor in his wife's lung until it was too late to save her.

Gerald Jones's Cuyahoga (Ohio) County complaint recounts a series of missteps by Kaiser Permanente doctors and radiologists in the treatment of his wife Deborah. She first sought x-ray surveillance for "potential lung pathology" in 2006, Jones says.

A 2009 chest x-ray revealed "a questionable new nodule" in her left lung, and the x-ray technician recommended that Deborah have a CT scan. The CT scan confirmed a new lung tumor, but the radiologist failed to see it according to the complaint.

Two months after the first CT scan, Deborah had a second one and a different radiologist failed to notice the tumor, despite the fact that it had increased in size, Jones says. Radiologists finally discovered the mass on Oct. 25, 2010 - nearly a year after the first x-ray.

"On Nov. 11, 2010, plaintiff's decedent was advised that she had lung cancer. ... On Dec. 23, 2010, plaintiff's decedent underwent a PET CT scan at a Kaiser defendant's facility that was interpreted by Kaiser radiologist Mangesh Kanvinde MD, who confirmed the presence of the left lung mass and noted 'This mass was previously seen on the CT scan of 3-11-2010 and measured approximately 12 mm at the time,'" Jones says in the complaint.

Deborah's tumor had more than doubled in size in a matter of months and, somehow, Kaiser doctors either missed it or noted that it had not changed, according to Jones.

His wife died on Jan. 22, 2011 of "bacterial sepsis due to metastatic lung cancer."

Jones seeks damages for medical negligence and wrongful death. He is represented by Thomas H. Terry III of Bay Village, Ohio.