Delayed Bowel Cancer Diagnosis: Tessa’s Ongoing Fight for Answers and Justice

Tessa* reached out to Natalie Pibworth at Tees when she thought she might have been the victim of medical negligence.

She had suffered from symptoms of worsening abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhoea and bloating for a period of over 1 ½ years before finally being diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer.

Tessa wanted to know whether the cancer should have been diagnosed sooner and, if so, when. She also wanted to know whether spread of the cancer beyond her bowel could have been avoided by appropriate treatment and earlier intervention.

Tessa’ story

Tessa is married and was in her thirties when her symptoms began. Prior to the symptoms of bowel cancer, Tessa was fit and well.

In the 1 ½ years preceding Tessa’ diagnosis, she was incorrectly diagnosed and treated for multiple abdominal conditions and had multiple scans and other investigations at Hospital.

Tessa also had multiple hospital admissions due to her worsening symptoms.

Tessa was eventually taken into emergency surgery after being admitted to the Hospital with severe agonising abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and distress.

A few weeks later, she was given the heart-breaking news that she had stage 4 bowel cancer.

Tessa subsequently underwent chemotherapy but the cancer sadly recurred, resulting in the need for further major surgery which has left her infertile, immunotherapy and further major surgery to as the cancer had spread to the liver.

Tessa suffers with ongoing debilitating symptoms from the cancer and the treatment she has had to undergo, some of which will unfortunately be permanent and which impact on her quality of life.

How our medical negligence specialists helped

Natalie Pibworth spoke with Tessa, listened to her story and asked questions to understand what Tessa wanted to achieve.

Having understood that Tessa wanted to find out whether the delay in diagnosis made any difference to the treatment she has needed, her current condition and her prognosis, Natalie obtained reports from independent radiology, colorectal surgery, oncology and psychiatric experts.

The experts’ conclusions were that Tessa should have been diagnosed over a year and a half earlier than she was, that the cancer would have been at an early stage and that Tessa would have been able to have surgery before the cancer had spread. Tessa would not have needed chemotherapy or further surgeries and would have had an otherwise normal life expectancy with a normal quality of life.

Achieving justice

Natalie’s work on the claim to secure the justice and compensation that Tessa deserves is continuing.

Natalie has already been able to secure some answers and explanations for Tessa, and the Defendant Hospital has admitted some errors. Natalie is supporting Tessa through the claims process.

*Tessa has been anonymised to protect her identity