Family receive a settlement after woman dies following an unnecessary procedure

The patient, who we have called Jean, died after being subjected to an invasive procedure despite previous results showing that it was not required. The procedure had known risks including internal bleeding, which caused Jean’s health to rapidly decline. This was exasperated by other measures such as prescribing a blood thinner which worsened her bleeding.

Jean was admitted to hospital for investigations into a possible recurrence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A CT scan was undertaken which, along with a bone marrow biopsy, confirmed the recurrence.

In the meantime, a tentative plan had also been made to carry out a procedure which involved taking samples from the lungs (called an Endobronchial Ultrasound-guided Transbronchial Needle Aspiration, or “EBUS”) to confirm the diagnosis. Such a procedure carries a risk of causing internal bleeding, though the risk is generally considered acceptable for the benefit of confirming the presence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Unfortunately, despite the diagnosis having already been confirmed by the bone marrow biopsy, the EBUS procedure was not cancelled.

• The rationale for the invasive EBUS procedure was “debatable”, considering her diagnosis had already been reached.
• There was a failure to consider and diagnose the internal bleeding, despite the known risk of the EBUS procedure and the clinical signs which developed over the following days.
• There was a significant delay in carrying out appropriate scans to investigate her deteriorating condition.
• Anti-coagulation was administered, despite her falling blood pressure and haemoglobin, and this worsened the bleeding.