I’m not going to name any names, but would just like to give a gentle warning to make sure that you are happy with a doctor’s diagnosis before they go ahead and operate on you, and to always document everything that is said and done at the time.  The older generation on the whole tend to be of the opinion that a doctor or surgeon is always right, and the husband of a friend of mine, let’s call him Jim, has found out the hard way that this is not always so…

Two years ago Jim, then in his mid seventies, went to his GP after being able to feel a small lump under his right armpit.  The GP referred him to a surgeon, who looked at Jim’s scans and told him that actually there was a lump under his left armpit that needed removing.  Jim argued that the lump was under his right armpit, but the surgeon went ahead and took out the left-sided lump and left the other one in place.

Two years later Jim suddenly has a lump as big as a tangerine under his right armpit.  He goes again to the GP, who refers him for blood tests (which are normal) and a biopsy.  The biopsy shows lymphoma (cancer of the lymph glands), and he’s now under the care of the oncologists.  Had the lump been taken out two years previously, Jim might have been cancer free today.  He now has to suffer the rigours of chemotherapy.  My friend quite rightly has reported this as a grave incident to the appropriate team, and she waits to learn the outcome of her complaint.  Let’s hope that Jim’s medical records from two years ago do not suddenly go ‘missing’…

Jim waits to find out whether he has Hodgkins or Non-Hodgkins lymphoma.  A sad day for my friend and her husband.