Delay in Cancer Diagnosis is Costly in Virginia
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A jury in Spotsylvania County has awarded the family of a woman who died after a delayed diagnosis of breast cancer more than $7.5 million.
After a five-day trial, the jurors ruled against Fredericksburg family practitioner Dr. Donna Gamache on April 3.
The award is believed to be among the largest medical malpractice awards in Virginia history and is the second major malpractice award against Gamache.
In 2005, a jury in Fredericksburg awarded $1.8 million to a Spotsylvania man who alleged that Gamache failed to diagnose and treat a severe spinal condition.
The April 3 decision will be reduced to $1.65 million, the state-mandated malpractice cap at the time of the negligence.
The case began six years ago, when the plaintiff, Eleanor Browder, discovered an approximately 1”x2” lump in her right breast.
Browder died of cancer in April 2008 before the complaint could ever go to trial. Her husband, Pat Browder, and her two adult children continued the case after her death.
Browder was a registered nurse at Culpeper Regional Hospital. Her husband had been a longtime Spotsylvania mail carrier.
The family had moved to New Jersey in recent years, where Browder was employed as a school nurse until her death.
In March 2003, Browder, who was 53-years-old at the time, visited Gamache’s office at Lee’s Hill Medical Associates. A mammogram of her right breast was ordered by Mary Nichols, a nurse practitioner at the office. The test came back negative.
At the time, both Gamache and Nichols were employed by the practice. Since that time, Gamache has opened Lee’s Hill Family Physicians.
Nichols was initially named as a defendant in the case, but reached a settlement with the family prior to trial, according to court records.
According to Browder’s attorney, the results of the mammogram were delivered to Gamache’s mailbox at Mary Washington hospital. She examined them and wrote “Need chart” at the top.
However, says Browder’s attorney, Gamache never received the chart and no further actions were taken.
The suit argued that further testing, such as an ultrasound and biopsy, should have been ordered. Browder’s attorney said that she had a perceptible lump in her breast and Gamache should not have relied on what turned out to be a false-negative mammogram.
In October, Browder returned to Gamache. Her attorney says that by then, the lump had grown to the size of a lemon.
Gamache ordered an ultrasound and biopsy to be performed, and the lump was identified as cancerous.
Browder’s attorney said that had the cancer been identified upon her initial visit, when the cancer was Stage I or Stage II, she would have had an increased chance of survival. However, the cancer had grown to Stage IV and was incurable by November.
Browder underwent pre-surgery chemotherapy, surgery, a double mastectomy, and post-surgery chemotherapy and radiation.
Browder’s cancer went into remission until 2006, when it returned in her stomach, pancreas, and brain.
After about five hours of deliberation, the jury ruled in favor of Browder’s family. They awarded $212,000 for medical expenses, $785,000 for "economic loss," and $6.5 million to Paul Browder for "solace."
