TRAGEDY OF RONNY’S CANCER WAIT HELL
A GRANDFATHER who faced an eight-month wait in receiving cancer treatment has now been told by doctors that they cannot do anything for him.
Ronny Andrews, a former bricklayer from Cardiff, was told he had cancer in January 2017 when a tumour was discovered on his liver.
But the 64-year-old claims he did not receive any form of chemotherapy treatment until September and that was deemed ineffective.
The cancer has now spread to his lymph nodes and other parts of his body, prompting doctors to give him the devastating news that he has just months to live.
The Welsh Government wants all cancer patients to be treated within two months of a diagnosis – but Mr Andrews waited four times longer than that.
“I’m just waiting for God,” he said. “I know the inevitable is going to come. Because of my beliefs, facing death has never been a problem.
“I just don’t know why it took so long to treat me. Maybe I’m one of the unlucky ones.”
Mr Andrews first went to the doctors after suffering a hernia but following blood tests he was referred to the University Hospital of Wales where doctors spotted a tumour on his liver.
He said his initial biopsy was delayed because he was not told to stop taking his blood thinning tablets and then when the biopsy was finally carried out the tumour was missed.
It meant he had to return to the hospital again at a later date, adding further delays.
“The tumour was just growing and growing,” he added.
“It just went on and on and on. I just thought to myself ‘This is ridiculous.’ Just get it out.
“When they first saw it, the tumour was about 5cm but it reached about 15cm by the time they tried to treat it.
“By then it had reached my lymph nodes and another tumour had formed next to the original one.”
Mr Andrews was then taken to cancer hospital Velindre to be given a treatment known as TACE, in which chemotherapy was injected into the tumour. But he said it had little impact. He has now been put on a “palliative care pathway” after being given between three and six months to live.
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said it was “so sorry” to hear about Mr Andrews’ case and will continue to investigate his complaint.
A spokeswoman said: “As we are sure you will understand we are unable to fully comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality, however we acknowledge that there have been instances during his treatment where communication could have been improved and apologise for the distress that this will have caused to him and his family during his investigations and treatment.
“However, the full investigation into this patient’s care confirmed that all of the investigations were clinically necessary to inform the appropriate diagnosis and treatment.”
The health board added that representatives had also met with Mr Andrews and his family to discuss their concerns in detail.
It said: “Cancer management and diagnosis is multi-disciplinary and complex. A more straightforward diagnosis may only take a couple of weeks but a cancer type that is difficult to diagnose may unfortunately take months.
“The health board’s performance against Welsh Government’s 62-day standard has improved from 70% in 2015-16 to 89% this year despite treating more patients each year.
“Due to the number of investigations required to reach a diagnostic conclusion it may appear to patients that it is one long wait.
“However, each investigation has a waiting time and following each investigation there are processes within radiology and pathology to process and validate the results before they are available to the referring clinician.”