Shrewsbury family's pain after man dies following missed cancer scan results

Michael Lane, 50, from Shrewsbury, died in May 2021, five months after being diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer and 10 years after seeing a doctor with his initial symptoms.

At the time of his original consultation in 2011, Mr Lane had a CT scan which showed a suspicious mass in his right kidney.

But the radiology report was printed and filed without being sent to his consultant urologist or his GP.

Mr Lane then spent 10 years unaware of his condition before being diagnosed with cancer in December 2020 after experiencing symptoms.

His family launched a legal challenge against Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which admitted a possible systemic failure with radiology reports.

An internal investigation by the trust found other incidents relating to abnormal scan results in other departments “where paper reports have been filed without being actioned, and harm has come to other patients as a result of this process”.

In a response to the Shropshire Star, the trust apologised for the failing, and said it is bringing in an electronic record system to prevent such tragedies in the future.

Mr Lane’s brother, Mark Lane, said the main aim of taking legal action was to ensure that steps were taken to prevent similar mistakes from happening again.

He added: “Mike was a very private person and never wanted any fuss, but one of his regrets was trusting the doctors and assuming everything was OK.

“Now that our case has settled, I can’t help but worry that this isn’t a one-off and that there are other people out there who have been failed like Mike, and had crucial scan results go missing at this trust. Whilst a formal apology from the trust has been requested, this has not yet been received by the family which continues to cause great upset.”

Laura Weir, a clinical negligence specialist at Lanyon Bowdler Solicitors in Shrewsbury, said the case had identified a worrying flaw with the trust’s radiology reporting system.

She said: “Despite the trust assuring us that they are now moving to an electronic system, which they hope will prevent future harm, the implementation of an IT solution will not prevent sad cases such as that of Mr Lane where the scan report, that was missed, took place before the widespread availability of such systems. The worry is that other patients may have been affected by similar failings.”

Richard Steyn, Co-medical Director at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “I want to offer our sincere apologies and condolences to the family of Mr Lane for failing to report the discovery of a tumour on an earlier scan.

“We carried out a thorough investigation into this case to learn lessons and are planning to introduce trust-wide electronic record systems, designed to safeguard patients from similar errors with paper-based records.”