HomeCase StudyLavelle Partners secures settlement for Plaintiff who developed cervical cancer following a misread smear test

Lavelle Partners secures settlement for Plaintiff who developed cervical cancer following a misread smear test

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The Plaintiff in this matter underwent a smear test in her GP practice which was reported as showing low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions.

Three years later, she attended for a repeat smear which revealed high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. Our client was subsequently diagnosed with cervical cancer and required a radical hysterectomy.

She was subsequently advised by a colposcopy consultant that her initial smear had revealed evidence of high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions and that if the initial smear test had been accurately read or reported at the time, she would have been referred for colposcopy when precancerous changes were likely to have been detected and she could have avoided the necessity of a hysterectomy. The Plaintiff subsequently developed metastatic cancer with a significant impact on her life expectancy.

The Plaintiff instructed Lavelle Partners to investigate her circumstances and we obtained expert evidence to confirm that if the Plaintiff had been diagnosed correctly in 2011, she would have undergone some form of treatment that would have prevented her developing cancer.

The case went to mediation and was successfully settled in advance of the trial date.

For more information, please contact Avril Scally, Partner and Head of the Medical Negligence.