A jury in Philadelphia awarded $3.35 million in damages in a medical malpractice case against St. Mary Medical Center and two radiologists over a missed cancer diagnosis.
Because the cancer was overlooked, plaintiff Ewa Kesicka, 54, of Bensalem, PA, was later diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer and forced to have painful and invasive surgeries that would not have been necessary, according to her attorney Rob Ross of Ross Feller Casey in Philadelphia.
The jury found that Dr. Roy M. Prager and Dr. Paul J. Weiser were negligent in 2012 and 2013 when they failed to diagnose the breast cancer despite multiple mammograms showing suspicious deposits, or calcifications.
Stage 3 cancer means the breast cancer has extended to beyond the immediate region of the tumor and may have invaded nearby lymph nodes and muscles.
The delay in treatment also increases the chances the woman's cancer may return, attorney Ross told the Courier Times. “Now every day of her life she has to worry about when and if this cancer is going to come back.”
Kesicka had regular mammograms since 2009 when another doctor first noticed suspicious calcifications. However, Dr. Weiser viewed a series of mammograms in 2012 and 2013 and determined the growths were benign. Both times he merely recommended an annual follow up. Dr. Prager wrote in 2012, “there is no mammographic evidence of malignancy,” the suit said.
However, when meeting with a gynecologist in 2013, Kesicka noted a lump in her armpit. The doctor found another in her breast and ordered tests that revealed the woman had stage 3 breast cancer.
