Failed monitoring of malignant melanoma leads to death of patient

Pearl and her husband were on holiday in Spain with friends when Derrick discovered a coin sized ulcer in the middle of his chest. Pearl convinced him that he should have it checked out at the local hospital.

When he attended the hospital they performed an excision of the legion which then confirmed as being a malignant melanoma.

On his return to the UKDerrick underwent a wide excision of his tumour and a CT scan of his head, neck and abdomen which were confirmed as being "clear". He was not referred for an oncology opinion.

He was reviewed every three months but this was simply a check of lymph nodes in his groin.

Derrick began to sufferer intense headaches and reported them to his GP but no tests were carried out. Pearl began to notice that Derrick was having problems with his balance.

On one particular day Derrick was suffering from a severe headache but insisted that he still had to attend a meeting for the new project that he was undertaking. Pearl insisted on driving him and after the meeting he was so ill that she drove him straight to the nearest accident and emergency department.

Derrick was admitted but he did not have a brain scan until 3 days afterwards which found a brain lesion. He was still not referred to oncology. Pearl insisted that they should get someone from oncology but it fell on deaf ears. She was told that there was nothing more they could do for him as he was terminal. Derrick was put on morphine and sadly died 3 weeks later due to cerebral metastases secondary to a malignant melanoma.

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