€260,000 Compensation for Misdiagnosed Pancreatic Cancer Leading to Patient's Death

The High Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha has ordered the Castilla-La Mancha Health Service (SESCAM) to pay €260,000 in compensation to the son of a patient who was mistakenly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer when she actually had intestinal cancer.

The 59-year-old woman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2017 at the Santa Bárbara Hospital in Puertollano (Ciudad Real) and the General Hospital of Ciudad Real. As a result of this diagnosis, her pancreas, spleen, part of her stomach, gallbladder, and part of her duodenum were removed, causing injury to the ulnar nerve during the surgery. According to the court ruling, neither hospital conducted the necessary tests to reach a definitive diagnosis—such as endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and tumour markers—and therefore failed to discover that the woman only had chronic pancreatitis and a more severe condition: intestinal cancer.

This cancer grew uncontrollably, and the patient could only receive palliative care until her death. The deceased's family took the case to court through the Patient Defender Association, which has now secured €260,000 in compensation for the deceased's son.

The court considers this compensation justified for three reasons: the severe mutilations inflicted on the woman due to an unjustified surgical intervention following an erroneous diagnosis, the patient's death, and the psychological harm caused to the son. According to the lawyer representing the deceased's son, Francisco Fernández-Bravo, "It was crucial to initiate this procedure while the patient was still alive, thus eliminating any grounds for the administration to oppose the son's claim regarding the brutal mutilation inflicted on the patient."

Meanwhile, the president of the Patient Defender Association, Carmen Flores, stated that "it is absolutely unheard of to empty a patient without ensuring the disease they have, and after doing so, to neglect them and ignore all the ailments they had. This is why it is necessary for public authorities to be aware that they must allocate the necessary resources so that medical services can dedicate the required time and appropriate care to all patients, as these cascading errors reveal the structural deficiencies of the system."