A MUM-OF-TWO was told she had a chest infection and was healthy by her GP four times – but it turned out she had lung cancer.
Tracey Ketch, 53, had a persistent cough and felt short of breath when she first went to the doctors where they ended up mis-diagnosing her multiple times.
Tracey Ketch was told she had a chest infection and was healthy by her GP four times
She was even sent to local hospital Good Hope and was given the all clear before later being diagnosed with cancer
She claims her cancer went un-detected because she didn’t smoke and was “otherwise healthy”.
Tracey from Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, was even sent to local hospital Good Hope, in May and June in 2019 for two X-rays – and was wrongly given the ‘all-clear’.
But less than one year later at the start of 2020, Tracey’s symptoms continued forcing her GP to send her for an urgent chest CT scan.
Her cancer was diagnosed in the February when doctors reviewing the scan found a four-centimetre tumour and secondary growth throughout her lungs.
Tracey told BirminghamLive: “I’m sure my cancer was missed because I am a non-smoker.
“I feel my symptoms were dismissed as soon as the question of smoking was covered.”
Tracey claims the consultant said the previous X-rays suggested she had cancer but it had been missed and advised her to take legal action.
She explained how she struggled to accept the reality of the X-rays at first adding: “How could I go from being all clear to having cancer all over my lungs?
“Because I’d been to my GP so many times, and told it was a chest infection, I was telling myself it was all in my mind and it was stress.”
As a result of legal action, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust admitted reviews of the two chest X-rays in 2019 revealed they fell below standards expected.
Tracey received a four-figure settlement and is currently responding well to tablets – which have stopped the tumour growing.
However, she might need more intensive treatment in the future and wants to ensure “lessons are learned” from her experience.
A review by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch found around one in five lung cancers are missed on X-rays.
Tracey added: “I think my case highlights how easy it is to slip through the net if you have lung cancer but are otherwise healthy and a non-smoker.”
A spokesman for University Hospitals Birmingham said: “We offer a sincere apology to Mrs Ketch, for the failure to identify her cancer sooner.
“This falls far below our expectations of the care that she should have received from us.”
The hospital said a full investigation has taken place into Tracey’s delayed diagnosis.
