Personality claims misdiagnosis
Cancer sufferer told changes in her breasts were ‘normal’
File photo: Matthew Mirabelli
Well-known personality and mother-of-two Nirvana Ciavola Azzopardi claimed in a judicial protest filed yesterday she was suffering from advanced cancer after being misdiagnosed by her consultant.
Nirvana, 39, claimed that her breast cancer, which was the most aggressive grade, spread to stage four because it was not diagnosed, as a result of the consultant's negligence.
It had now progressed through her lymph nodes and was attacking her liver.
In the protest, Nirvana, who has two sons, aged four and nine, said that during her first visit to the consultant at the end of 2010, she was told that the change was “normal and acceptable” and the doctor used the words “100 per cent nothing” following a breast examination.
Following this appointment, the change in her breasts became more noticeable and in April 2011 she went back to the consultant to be re-examined.
The consultant suggested it would be sensible to undergo a mammogram to clarify the reasons for the change.
By doing this, the consultant in a tacit manner realised that her previous medical advice was “completely incorrect”, said Nirvana, a former television presenter and producer.
The consultant tried to remedy the situation, by which time it was too late, she added.
Despite being sent for a mammogram, which is not the best way to examine women under the age of 40, and after consulting another doctor, she was told to go to the Breast Clinic at Mater Dei Hospital.
Following the examinations at the hospital, which diagnosed her with “triple negative breast cancer”, it transpired that she had previously received incorrect medical advice, Nirvana said.
In a letter sent on December 5, 2011, the consultant had told Nirvana that she was not responsible for what had happened.
Nirvana held the consultant responsible for damages saying she reserved the right to seek further legal redress because of the doctor’s “abusive” behaviour.
Lawyers Adrian Delia and Kris Scicluna signed the protest.
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47 Comments
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Lawrence Anastasi
Apr 18th, 13:23
In Canada the advice you get from the medical community is If you are not satisfied with the answer, " get a second opinion" The worst that can happen is the first opinion is coinfirmed correct. Unfortunately this young lady was to trusting. God bless her.
Pule' Carmel
Jan 31st, 01:22
After separate motorcycle incidents, both my brother and I were told that we will never walk again because we had severed information paths in our spine.I concluded that the knock on my head which kept me unconscious for three/four days,erased my memory of knowing how to walk. I decided to learn to walk again and at73 and75 years old my brother and I do walk properly!Some diagnosis are not perfect!
lisa parnis coleiro
Jan 2nd, 09:39
when I was pregnant I went to a private clinic to check out my blood type and was informed that my blood group was A positive- When I opened the file at Mater Dei and did the necessary tests, I got to know that my blood type was in fact A negative!! Thanks God all went well but it could have ended up in a disaster!!!>
K CASSAR
Dec 30th 2012, 11:03
My Heart goes out to Nirvana. Well done for taking a stand, for your sake and that of your children. May you get well and may health professionals realize that a woman knows when something is wrong and that it is their duty to investigate till their client is convinced! Breast cancer has no limits in age or gender!!!!!
Helen Cassar
Dec 30th 2012, 08:00
Don't you get it! They just don't know anything about cancer. Research just puts people in boxes and doctors decide what goes and what doesn't go for you. But people aren't boxes. They are treated like guinea pigs. It depends how lucky you can get...Enough said.
Daniel Farrugia
Jan 1st, 13:58
I shiver to think what a patient afflicted with such a terrible diagnosis would feel at your comment above. Research has provided doctors with better ways to prevent and cure this disease over these past years, patients live more thanks to painstaking research. Breast cancer is not a death sentence if that is what you're implying.
Antoine Zammit
Dec 30th 2012, 02:16
Hi All,
I wish this lady honestly, she gets the compensation from the consultant and that she survives and defeats this terrible disease! I was shocked with this news, since I remember watching her on TV! May she gets well soon!
Mrs C. Weitze
Dec 30th 2012, 01:38
How can any consultant give a 100% clearance without a mammogram AND an ultrasound is beyond my understanding. A "normal" breast examination is simply not enough!
Both screenings are important, as certain cancer types are only visible on either ultrasound or a mammogram, as I learnt from consultants of a German breast cancer clinic, who had to treat a close relative of mine.
Alfred Cassar
Dec 30th 2012, 00:22
Our Law provides for redress and above all Civil action. Unfortunately, it will not give you your health back. Today the mother, is the mother of all evil, .. Money, the Clinic, the Private Practice, ... patients do not always come first. It has come to the fore that high fee Doctors, stop seeing patients who cant afford them. That is sheer evil. Some forgot their oath, ..... heath first.
Danika Vella
Dec 29th 2012, 22:15
It's too easy to point fingers.
K CASSAR
Dec 30th 2012, 10:59
Tell that to her children!!!
Joe Azzopardi
Dec 29th 2012, 21:57
Can someone estimate how much a life is worth ? This is an eye opener for all. Misdiagnosis are happening so frequent. This should be an eyeopener to all. Choose your doctor with care. Make sure that you're not just a number and a source of income.
Julian Borg
Dec 29th 2012, 19:45
I find it incredulous that so many have commented in a judgemental way on a case they clearly know nothing about. We should pray for the unfortunate Nirvana and if she has been incorrectly diagnosed then the courts will decide accordingly. The courts are there for a reason and we must pray that justice be done - though it will do little for the unfortunate Nirvana and her beautiful children.
Joe Busuttil
Dec 29th 2012, 19:33
If I'm not mistaken PET scans in the UK are double checked by consultants so that the margin for error is diminished drastically. It is important that cases like this are diagnosed as early as possible. Wish the young woman the best of luck and may she overcome this problem.
Sandro Galea
Dec 30th 2012, 09:01
There is lots of evidence in the radiology literature that shows the benefits of double reading, not just in mammography reading. Tthe problem is there aren't enough doctors to support such a practice throughout a whole department.
J. Debono
Dec 30th 2012, 11:19
In Malta we have only one consultant qualified to read PET scans.
Who's gonna double check him?
cesco di luigi
Dec 29th 2012, 16:51
Everyone makes mistakes...only some mistakes can kill. My wife was injected with a dye that contained a component that she had alerted nurses that she was highly allergic to. She got a very bad reaction and could have been killed. Doctor said why didn't you tell us, when she replied that in fact she had, he said the reaction had nothing to do with the dye! Mur merih.
Ray Buhagiar
Dec 29th 2012, 16:43
Nirvana is a health professional (speech therapist) and knows that all health professionals are prone to do mistakes. It would have been sensible to take a second opinion.
Alex Buds
Dec 29th 2012, 19:31
I think the 100% normal comment was a bit over the top though...
Ray Buhagiar
Dec 29th 2012, 16:38
We should have a breast screening programme starting age 30, and colorectal cancer screening and prostate screening and then we pay taxes for all these so that consultants would not be able to misdiagnose. In Germany and USA they do MRI as a screening for breast cancer. There is only one MRI unit at Mater Dei.
This is an unfortunate case. I wish Nirvana to conquer this disease.
Mrs C. Weitze
Dec 30th 2012, 01:09
In Germany they do NOT use MRI's for normal breast screening, but digital mammograms in combination with ultrasound.
MRI's are used AFTER having found abnormalities during the mammogram and the ultrasound;
1) for a clearer picture of the tumour and
2) to check whether other organs are effected.
Sandro Galea
Dec 30th 2012, 08:49
Dear Mr.Buhagiar
Can you please back up your recommendations scientifically? No country in the world, not even the USA, starts breast screening at the age of 30.
MRI scanning of the breast is a 2nd-line investigation, there is no evidence as yet backing its use for routine screening in the general population.
A Calleja
Dec 29th 2012, 16:02
Please note that the consultants at Mater Dei diagonised her problem !
Maria Brincat
Dec 29th 2012, 16:02
Hang on and get well, Nirvana
Adrian P. Cassar
Dec 29th 2012, 16:02
Everyone sympathizes with Nirvana and it is her right to seek legal damages if she thinks is it appropriate.
However, nobody here knows the details of the case. It is the court who has to decide whether there was medical negligence or not. The inability of a doctor to make a correct diagnosis is not necessarily a case of negligence.
Naomi Attard Borg
Dec 29th 2012, 14:35
I wish Nirvana to be well soon.
Carmel Gatt
Dec 29th 2012, 14:33
What most of these so-called consultants and specialists see in a patient is money, money, and even more money until the patient is squeezed to the last drop
Adrian P. Cassar
Dec 29th 2012, 15:46
Hmmmm.....as if reassuring a patient earns them money!!
Unnecessary investigations would be good to make money.
What a ridiculous comment.
Tanja Cilia
Dec 29th 2012, 14:13
If I were the betting kind, I would lay my money on the fact that each one of us knows at least two people who have been mis-diagnosed and also, perhaps, derided for making a fuss over "nothing"because a professional has too much hubris to consult with a peer. I have the documents to back up what I am saying.
Victor Borg
Dec 29th 2012, 14:51
My wife was given the wrong vaccine. Then, when I complained and we were proven right, a different nurse (not the one who gave her the wrong vaccine) started treating us with hostility, berating me. I complained in writing about his attitude to the health authorities - who did nothing - and eventually to the Office of Prime Minister, who also did nothing. Blunders, arrogance, unaccountability.
Etienne Galea
Dec 29th 2012, 14:06
One cannot generalize. Whilst I agree that from some doctors there is arrogant behavior, some still regard the medical profession a vocation. And in this area that is what it should be : placing others' needs before oneself.
C Sant
Dec 29th 2012, 14:23
Very sensible comment. Unfortunately, doctors are humans and as humans they can err.
Mario Borg
Dec 29th 2012, 14:39
"C. Sant
I am very disappointed to see you give credence to error because doctors are human, Doctors in Malta are generally arrogant and non communicative to say the least. Nirvana should look at punitive damages and not just a protest. Her consultant and other that are reckless in there diagnosis should be held accountable to the highest degree. WE depend on them because they are doctors.
Adrian P. Cassar
Dec 29th 2012, 15:57
Mario,
Malta has one of the highest life expectancy in the world (same as Germany), despite having a high prevalence of diabetes and obesity. And to add to this, we spend a fraction (per person) of what they spend on healthcare ($4000pp germany vs $1700pp malta).
So much for recklessness and arrogance!!
joseph cemenzuli
Dec 29th 2012, 17:54
My last appointment at a certain out patient department,i went in the clinic,found a doctor complaining that he had been working for 30 hours and was tired.I took a day off and went to hospital for nothing.At the end after he told me it has nothing to do with his clinic,he told me"Ara issa mur,hallini ghax tehel int mieghi"Is that not arrogance?
joseph cemenzuli
Dec 29th 2012, 19:24
And by the way,if there is somebody who is reading and can suggest to me what to do,please do not hesitat!
Mario Borg
Dec 30th 2012, 05:19
Adrian
FYI Malta is 35th while Germany is 28th on the official list. You should do your research before you blabber.
Adrian P. Cassar
Dec 30th 2012, 09:02
Mario, it seems you have great difficulty doing research or understanding numbers!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
If you see the first UN table, malta and Germany are a perfect tie.
If you see the second CIA table, Germany's llife expectany is 4 months more than Malta...WOW how flabbergasted we all are. Certainly worth spending double the money for 4 months!
L Galea
Dec 30th 2012, 10:51
@ C. Sant
Would you be so relaxed if the error was done to you or your loved ones. Keep this kind of sorry wisdom to your own family. It is unjust that a mother's life should have been jeopardised through negligence.
Anne Marie Bonello
Jan 9th, 00:53
Dear Mario Borg,
I find your comment disturbing 'doctors in Malta are generally arrogant and non communicative'. If we talk generally all Maltese are generally arrogant and non communicative.
leo briffa
Dec 29th 2012, 13:53
I will pray for you and your family and remember the days we worked together. thanks Nirvana and be strong you will overcome this situation.
Betty Lee
Dec 29th 2012, 13:47
I too wish Nirvana well and do know what she is going through. Personally we I felt a lump one day I went to my GP the next day and was told to wait a month as it was probably a cyst. I told him I wanted it out. He said no need. So I took it upon myself to go for a mammogram privately next day and within 4 days I had my breast removed and was diagnosed with agressive grade 3.
Tanja Cilia
Dec 29th 2012, 18:22
"Probably". The mind boggles.
Peter Agius
Dec 29th 2012, 13:05
Nirvana.....get well soon. Do not give up. Knowing you and your parents I know you can make it.
joseph cemenzuli
Dec 29th 2012, 12:55
First of all,I would like to wish Nirvana well and hope she will get well.Second I totallt agree that Nirvana filed a judical protest.I have been going to hospital from one appointment to another fr the last three years,from one consultant to anothet.I've been all over Mater Dei and they all tell me You are 100% normal.Yet I feel ill most of the time.
Victor Borg
Dec 29th 2012, 12:53
While I do not know the exact merits of this case, I sympathise with Nirvana because my family has also experienced blunders, arrogance, and unaccountability within the health service. The health system is a racket, the way medics use their hospital job to build up thriving private practices. I have very little faith left in the medical profession in Malta.
maria aquilina
Dec 29th 2012, 14:33
i agree with you partially.it took months for my nephew to be diagnosed.the it was too late.
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