Hoffmans Barristers and Solicitors

Loss of leg after error by doctors wins man $500,000

Perth man wins $500,000 in compensation for misdiagnosis for cancerA man was awarded $500,000.00 compensation because his two general practitioners failed to diagnose a small lump as a malignant cancer.

He had told the WA District Court that his wife had nagged him to have a small lump at the back of his knee investigated. He saw Dr. Gregory Deleuil, his 67 year old family doctor, who diagnosed the lump as a lipoma or "fat-ball". At his wife's insistence he then consulted Dr. Stanley Jacobs, who also diagnosed the lump as lipoma.

Neither general practitioner referred him for testing or ultrasound of the lump.

Four months later, when the lump had grown to the size of a golf ball, he consulted a third doctor, who removed it.

A subsequent biopsy showed it was an aggressive cancerous lesion and his leg had to be amputated because of the risk of further spread of the cancer.

In evidence given in the WA District Court, expert doctors said that his leg could have been saved if the lump had been diagnosed earlier.