Nurse, 35, died of ovarian cancer after doctors at hospital where she worked wrongly gave her the all-clear

A NURSE died of ovarian cancer after doctors at the hospital where she worked wrongly gave her the all-clear.

Catherine Jones, 35, was told she didn’t need treatment after a cyst on her ovary was deemed not cancerous.

The nurse, from Flintshire in Wales, had the ovarian cyst removed at Wrexham Maelor Hospital in North Wales in 2013.

But because it was not flagged as cancerous, she was not called for follow-up appointments and assumed she was in the clear.

However, the 35-year-old sadly died in 2016 when the cancer returned.

Coroner John Gittins said Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board had made “a full and frank acceptance” that a mistake was made.

Analysis of the cyst showed that it should have been classed as “borderline” – which would have resulted in further treatment while she was alive.

Mr Gittins said that the 35-year-old would not have died when she did if this had been the outcome.

In the summer of 2016, she was admitted into hospital when urgent tests revealed she had a large cancerous tumour.

DEADLY MISTAKE

She underwent a hysterectomy – and was then wrongly told she was cancer free.

But it had in fact spread, and she died in November 2016.

For the past four years her husband, David, 42, a chartered engineer, has been fighting the Health Board to learn the truth.

Mr Jones said: “Catherine was deprived of her future and need not have suffered. 

“She should have been celebrating her 40th birthday this week but she was let down at every stage by the very hospital she worked for.”

A full inquest into Catherine Jones’ death is to be held next year.

Ovarian cancer is one of the most common and also most deadly cancers found in women.

Around 90 per cent of women survive their cancer if it’s caught at the earliest stage, but that figure drops dramatically with delay.

Thousands of women are at the risk of dying from ovarian cancer each year, because they’re diagnosed too late.

A fifth of patients are found to have the disease in the advanced stages, charity Target Ovarian Cancer has said.

Source link