When we go to our doctor’s office for a checkup or a test, we often assume that if we don’t hear back from them, no news must mean good news.
But no news for one woman after a routine test nearly cost her, her life. And experts warn it happens more than you may think.
Susan Daniels enjoys simple moments with her family. It’s time she wasn’t sure she would have.
“Things in life happen for a reason. I don’t know what they are, but I can tell you that I’ve learned a lot through all this,” Daniels says.
Her story began five years ago, when she went to her doctor of 20 years for a pap smear.
When the office didn’t call with results, Daniels thought she was fine. B
ut two years later her doctor discovered a cervical tumor so big it was inoperable. She was referred to Dr. Christine Lee at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Lee says, “This all stemmed from an abnormal pap smear that wasn’t caught.”
Daniels underwent chemo and radiation, but the cancer came back. Dr. Lee gave her two choices: death within a year or have a major surgery to remove all her female parts, her vagina, rectum and bladder.
“I was horrified. I didn’t know if I wanted to live the rest of my life with a colostomy and a urostomy,” says Daniels.
Dr. Lee explains, “Offices get busy and nurses will or well intentioned staff in the office will say it was normal, but it’s actually a different patient’s pap smear. That has also happened.”
While Daniels says she can’t change what happened to her, she hopes her story will help others.
“Don’t assume that no news is fine. Whenever you go and have a test and you pay for those test results, get those test results,” she says.
Since the removal of her vagina, rectum and bladder, Daniels had reconstructive surgery on her vagina and is now cancer-free.
She will also live with a colostomy and urostomy for the rest of her life.
While she says some people encouraged her to take legal action against her doctor, she decided she was just as responsible as he was for getting her results.
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