Cancer victim’s family sues doctors, hospitals
After not getting the right diagnosis for two years, Oliver man learned in 2020, he was ‘riddled with cancer,’ court documents allege
Cancer spread unchecked for nearly two years inside the body of an Oliver man who later succumbed to the disease, despite numerous doctors and medical tests suggesting the presence of a potentially cancerous lesion in his colon, according to a lawsuit filed this month.
Peter William Eyzenga died Aug. 31, 2018, just two months after he was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. He was 62.
Now his family has filed a lawsuit in BC Supreme Court alleging negligence on the part of six different doctors, Penticton Regional Hospital, South Okanagan General Hospital and the Interior Health Authority. The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensation for Eyzenga’s two adult children.
According to the lawsuit, Eyzenga’s trouble began July 24, 2018, when he showed up at SOGH for treatment of severe abdominal pain.
The doctor ordered medical imaging of Eyzenga’s abdomen to look for look for possible blockages or constipation, then sent him home with orders to consume stool softener.
Four days later, Eyzenga attended PRH with a similar complaint of severe abdominal pain and a CT scan was ordered. The scan revealed the presence of kidney stones — which were later removed surgically — but also what appeared to be a polyp, approximately four centimetres by three centimetres, attached to the cecal wall in Eyzenga’s colon.
Because doctors couldn’t rule out the polyp being a small piece of food or stool, additional tests and follow-ups were recommended, but apparently never took place until after Eyzenga paid a routine visit to his family doctor on Jan. 14, 2020 — 19 months after the scan at PRH first revealed the anomaly.
“No follow-up was ever done by any of his doctors to determine the status of the cecal polyp between July 28, 2018, and Jan. 14, 2020, … regardless of the fact that the doctors’ charts indicated that there needed to be follow-up done to determine what the cecal lesion was,” states the lawsuit.
Eyzenga’s health took a turn for the worse in March 2020, when he was on vacation in Hawaii and started feeling fatigued and light-headed, plus had dark urine and swollen ankles and knees.
He spoke to his doctor by phone on April 1, 2020, and was told his urine was “probably dark due to dehydration” and was advised to drink more water, according to the lawsuit.
Eyzenga had another telephone consultation with his doctor on May 19, 2020, and “explained to her his grave concern over his urine still being dark. (The doctor) told him that she did not see any reason to schedule any blood tests and suggested for him to drink more water.
“Each day that passed, Mr. Eyzenga saw his urine getting darker, he became more fatigued and he was developing pain in his right-hand side.”
On June 12, 2020, Eyzenga finally received a call from his doctor, who had the results of a fresh CT scan that showed his body was “riddled with cancer.”
“There was cancer in his liver, colon and lungs. She told him that he had three to six months to live. (The doctor) also told Mr. Eyzenga that due to the kidney stones and surgery, which took place for the kidney stones, the blemish/dark spot that was observed on the 2018 CT scan fell by the wayside,” states the lawsuit.
On June 23, 2020, Eyzenga had his first appointment with a specialist from the BC Cancer Clinic, who formally gave the diagnosis of Stage 4 cancer, and suggested the tumour was “visible” in the 2018 scan “and should not have been missed.”
Eyzenga died just two months later.
Both the Eyzenga family and Interior Health declined comment on the case.