Medical error can have devastating effects. Here, in their own words, Connecticut families tell the stories of how medical error changed their lives forever.
Mary Dietmann
My name if Mary Dietmann. I am a 42-year old full-time mother and a part-time nursing instructor. I am a victim of medical malpractice.
Today I am battling metastatic breast cancer because the medical system failed me more than four years ago in a series of repeated errors.
In April of 1998, at the age of 36, I found a small mass in my right breast during a self examination. I reported it to my gynecologist. My gynecologist referred me to a radiologist for a mammogram, but he failed to properly refer me to a surgeon for further examination and biopsy, nor did he properly advise me of the need for a follow-up examination.
Compounding my gynecologist’s mistakes, my radiologist wrongly reported this diagnostic mammogram as showing no abnormalities when, in fact, the mammogram showed a suspicious lesion in my right breast that should have immediately triggered additional diagnostic tests and treatment.
Only a year later, when I returned to the gynecologist in April of 1999, did the gynecologist refer me to a surgeon when he noticed the small nodule in my breast. Upon examination, the surgeon failed to recommend a biopsy or a follow-up exam. Instead, he sent me to a radiologist for an ultrasound of the breast. The radiologist from the same group that misread the prior year’s mammogram again missed the clear abnormality on the ultrasound.
Again, my chance for a cure was thwarted by the doctors’ negligence.
Not until February of 2000, when I went to the surgeon with dimpling in my breast, was the cancer diagnosed.
Because my doctors repeatedly failed to diagnose an obvious cancer at an early and treatable stage, I have endured a limitless amount of pain, suffering, humiliation, physical debilitation, hair loss, and most of all, loss of my life expectancy. Today, I hang onto every day of my life, not knowing when I might have to say goodbye forever to my husband, children, family and friends.
Despite being a nurse myself, and having many friends in the medical community, I ardently oppose efforts by politicians to severely restrict damages in catastrophic cases like mine. If there is any good that can come from my suffering, I hope that my case can convince officials that the answer to rising malpractice costs is to tackle the huge problem of medical error and malpractice instead of blaming the victims.
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