The mammogram is a key tool available to physicians to find a woman's breast cancer when it is still in the early stages, and in so doing saving the lives of these patients. However physicians occasionally misread memmograms by either overlooking an abnormality that is present or interpreting it as noncancerous. If an error is made in reading a mammogram it might holdup the detection of the patient's cancer. As a result of the passage of this time, the cancer may become advanced. By getting to an advanced stage, the patient has a lessened five year survival rate. Because of this the chances of her dying of the cancer go up significantly.

Consider the documented case of a woman who went in for a routine mammogram and was informed that there was no evidence of cancer. About two years subsequently, she underwent another mammogram. This mammogram was interpreted as showing no change to the dilated duct from the prior mammogram. But, the earlier mammogram had not evidenced a dilated duct and thus the doctors did nothing to look into the suspicious reverse from the previous, clear, mammogram. Her mammogram was misinterpreted and her cancer was not detected.

When the patient had a subsequent mammogram performed at a different hospital the coming year, the doctor who read the mammogram listed several small nodular densities. The doctor observed that these had not changed from the earlier mammograms. Yet, both of the previous mammograms contained no evidence of nodular densities. Again, her mammogram was misinterpreted and again her cancer was not detected.

In time it was discovered that your woman did have breast cancer, only by then it was metastatic cancer having already spread. The main tumor was in the same position where the previous mammogram had been interpreted as exhibiting a dilated duct. The woman pursued a medical malpractice case against both doctors and hospitals.

The doctor and hospital that read the third mammogram as indicating small nodular densities payed out an unpublished sum in an amount less that the $2,000,000 available in insurance. The doctor and hospital that incorrectly interpreted the previous mammogram refused to settle for the full amount of the policy, offering only $125,000. The case went to trial where evidence was introduced that had the mammogram not been misread the cancer might have been discovered while only a Stage 1 cancer, which normally has a 5 year survival rate well above ninety percent. The law firm that represented the woman reported that the jury returned a verdict of $12.0 million.

This is a good case to consider for various reasons. To begin, 2 separate mammograms were incorrectly interpreted by 2 different physicians at two different hospitals. Plus the two physicians attributed results to past mammograms which were actually not in those earlier mammograms. It is hard to explain how this might have happened unless the physicians both looked at a different patient's mammogram as the comparison. Yet the likelihood of this happening twice at 2 separate hospitals is extremely improbable. Yet the degree of carelessness that would be necessary otherwise is truly inexcusable. The jury appears to have agreed.