Coroner’s Court: Neglect Resulted in Lung Cancer Death
Megan Crowther represented the family of JJ who tragically died in November 2023, just six months after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
The Deceased had attended the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead in April 2022 with a fractured leg and had a chest x-ray as part of his investigations. The chest x-ray was ‘red flagged’ and the reporting radiographer recommended referral to a chest physician due to suspicions of cancer. The x-ray and report were not reviewed by the clinical team at any point during the Deceased’s inpatient admission or after he was discharged following surgical treatment for his leg.
The Coroner found that the failure to consider the results of a test (in this case, the x-ray) was a gross failure to provide basic care. He found that checking the reason for the ‘red flag’ on the x-ray was a basic check that should have been undertaken, and failure to carry out that check amounted to neglect. The evidence was clear that had the x-ray been reviewed, the Deceased would have been diagnosed with early stage lung cancer which would have been susceptible to treatment. The inquest concluded that the Deceased died of natural causes contributed to by neglect.
Megan was instructed by Stuart Bell at Irwin Mitchell.
