Lavelle Partners secures settlement for Plaintiff who lost her husband due to delay in diagnosing his cancer

The Plaintiff’s husband passed away from terminal cancer. He was referred by his GP for an unusual lesion in the left lower back that had increased in size over the previous year.

He was referred to a Dublin hospital and placed on an urgent waiting list for dermatological investigation, but no action was put in place to assure that he was seen. A further referral was made by his GP seven months later and he was seen in the outpatient department of the hospital. Two biopsies were excised which demonstrated the presence of malignant melanoma. The Plaintiff’s husband had an extremely poor prognosis and by the time it was diagnosed, it was incurable.

The Plaintiff instructed Lavelle Partners to investigate the circumstances of her husband’s death and we obtained expert evidence from the UK to confirm that had there been no delay in investigating the Plaintiff’s husband’s condition when he was initially placed on the urgent waiting list, the outlook would have been for 67.8% of 15 year cancer mortality. However, by the time of the diagnosis 7 months later, the median survival time was 7-12 months.

The hospital admitted liability and the case was successfully settled in advance of the trial date.

For more information, please contact Avril Scally, Partner and Head of the Medical Negligence Department.