Doctor in breach after 67-year-old’s deadly cancer missed

A 67-year-old man has been told he’s dying of bowel cancer two years after a doctor misread his CT scan.

Instead of being told the 5.5cm mass inside his bowel was cancerous, he was given the all clear and told to come for a check-up in five years.

The diagnostic radiologist has been found in breach for failing to correctly interpret a man’s CT colonography scans, a report by Health and Disability Commissioner Anthony Hill shows.

This comes after a Herald investigation revealed more than $15 million was paid in the past five years to hundreds of Kiwi cancer sufferers — after they were misdiagnosed, or not diagnosed quickly enough.

This man, who has not be named for privacy reasons, had a family history of bowel cancer and decided to get a CT colonography scan as a precaution in September 2015.

After the first radiologist could not decide if a mass that appeared in the image was cancer or not, he sought an second opinion from his colleague.

The second radiologist told Hill he could not dismiss the possibility of a tumour but did not say so. Instead, he told his colleague it was most likely faecal residue which was normal.

As a result, the patient was told his test results were normal and a followup ultrasound in five years’ time was recommended. But two years later he became unwell and a blood test revealed

he had abnormal liver function. Incurable bowel cancer had spread to his lungs and liver.

The family have also lodged a treatment injury claim. As part of this ACC sought expert clinical advice from an independent radiologist who immediately identified cancer and said urgent surgery was needed.

Four other radiologists who reviewed the images all identified that “the major finding was the large polypoid tumour of the ascending colon”.

After the HDC inquiry, Hill told the second diagnostic radiologist, who was found in breach, to apologise to the man and do further training. The commissioner also recommended an audit of all of the man’s CT scans.

Mary Bradley of Bowel Cancer NZ said this was a tragic case of someone been let down by a medical professional after doing everything right in terms of knowing his family history of bowel cancer and getting himself screened. “This man’s diagnosis must act as a warning to other health professionals to always investigate further,” she said.

“Bowel cancer kills 100 Kiwis every month, that’s 1200 every year.”

In May the Herald revealed cancerrelated compensation payouts jumped from five in 2012/13 to 113 in 2017/18, according to data from ACC. The annual cost over that period spiralled from $3207 to $5,126,717.

HDC reports show that of 166 cancer sufferers paid out between July 2013 and June 2018, nearly half were related to failures to diagnose, nearly a quarter were for failures to treat, 16 per cent were for not following up and 13 per cent for not referring the patient to the appropriate specialist.