Patient’s Breast X-ray Gets Destroyed after Being Misdiagnosed

Here is another story that confirms the importance of the second opinion in serious diseases like cancer.
A woman came to a private clinic for her routine check and receives all clear from a doctor after reading her x-rays. The doctor, clinical director of the NHS Pennine Breast Screening Service in Bradford during that time, turns out had no qualifications for reading X-rays, resources find.

A few months later, she gets a new diagnose from another doctor-breast cancer and dies two years later after the cancer had spread.

A woman left a statement in which she reveals what the doctor had told her during initial tests. He said that he saw a shelf at the top of the breast that hasn’t changed since the first time he looked at her and that there were no problems. The woman went home peacefully thinking she was in good hands.

After some time, she started experiencing pain in her right breast and had the tests again. This time, she was found to have three tumors in her right breast and one under her arm. The breast was removed following chemotherapy.
Unfortunately, the operation did not help and the cancer spread to her back and ribs and she lost the use of her legs. She died two years after.

When her family started preparing for court, they could not get the films and prints from the X-rays and they were informed that they had been destroyed. This is certainly not in accordance with NHS standards as such records are being kept for a period of eight years.


However, the doctor’s collegues report that this doctor was as good as anybody at reviewing the x-rays and that he was not the type of person who would destroy the documents and that he was very careful with every patient.

The doctor himself denies the accusations as well. The case resumes this week.