Kaiser – Delayed Diagnoses of Breast Cancer

Walkup’s Kaiser malpractice attorneys obtained a seven-figure settlement on behalf of a fifty-one-year-old woman who experienced a two-year delay in the diagnosis of breast cancer. Twenty four months prior to her diagnosis claimant felt a lump in her breast and made an appointment with her gynecologist. Her Permanente Group physician performed a “bedside ultrasound” with a portable ultrasound machine and assured her that the lump represented benign fibrocystic changes. She was not offered a diagnostic mammogram, formal ultrasound or fine needle biopsy. Later, during a routine screening mammogram, the radiologist found a lesion in the same area where the plaintiff previously identified the lump. Further diagnostic evaluation, including an ultrasound and ultrasound-guided biopsy revealed stage IV breast cancer.