Great Barr woman gets pay-out after hospital failed to spot cervical cancer
Mrs Harris, who has a 24-year-old daughter and 26-year-old son, added: “I did everything I could by going for every smear test. This just shows they are not foolproof but they are important and if I had not made sure I had each test the cancer would not have finally been diagnosed and could have been more deadly. I went through hell and I don’t want any other woman to go through what happened to me.”
Mrs Harris’s solicitor Julie Lewis, of law firm Irwin Mitchell, said a review of the previous smear slides in 2002 revealed it contained about 800 abnormal cells.
“The defendants admitted that if Mrs Harris had been recalled and referred for treatment at this stage, she would certainly have avoided the need for a hysterectomy and treated with laser surgery,” Ms Lewis said. “In addition to the major surgery and emotional turmoil she has been put through, she also had to contend with early menopause at the age of 49.”
A spokeswoman for Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust said new national standards and improvements meant less chance of abnormalities being missed. “In the case of Mrs Harris, the Trust regrets the failure to correctly identify an abnormal smear test result when it first had the opportunity in April 2002. The Trust would like to offer its sincere apologies.”
