In February 2010, Laverne Wilkinson of Brooklyn, New York, felt chest pains and thought she was having a heart attack. So she went to see a doctor at Kings County Hospital. But despite her X-ray showing a suspicious nodule in her lung, she was told to go home and take pain medication. Now, she has Stage 4 lung cancer that has spread to her liver, spine and brain.
Apparently, the radiologist had recommended in his original written report that Wilkinson have a followup X-ray in three months, and if "clinical concern warrants, a CT scan is suggested." But she was never given this information. Not during her appointment in 2010, and not during two years of followup clinic appointments, during which she complained of a chronic cough.
When she returned to the ER in spring 2012 - wheezing and short of breath - a new chest X-ray was taken, and it showed the nodule was cancerous, had more than doubled in size and spread to her left lung. Sadly, had she been properly diagnosed in 2010, the nodule could have been easily removed and it would have never spread.
Read more at www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/hospital-mistake-leaves-single-mom-6-months-live-article-1.1233989
