Cancer tragedy: Waitemata DHB apologizes to dying mother after racial bias complaint

A lonely mother of five is dying of breast cancer after multiple imaging tests failed to detect the deadly disease.

Teresa McCarthy, 58, has refused further treatment, without which she will die. She has already lost several family members to breast cancer, putting her in a high-risk category for the disease.

She has seen first-hand the severe impact that treatment had on the quality of their remaining lives.

“It’s scary. Those figures about how often Maori die from cancer, they are not statistics for me. They are my whanau and now I will be one of them,” he said.

The Waitemata District Board of Health apologized for not “fully attending to [her] cultural needs “after she complained of racial bias. But she has defended her clinical treatment, saying that doctors acted in the best interest of women to provide high-quality care.

McCarthy’s story dates back to November last year, when the cancer was completely removed from her right breast and doctors at North Shore Hospital told her that the chance of the cancer coming back was low.

In late June she started experiencing shooting pains in her chest and in July she discovered multiple lumps, “that you didn’t need to feel, you could see them stick out,” she said. She saw her GP, who referred her to North Shore Hospital to see a specialist.

Over the next two months, two ultrasounds and a mammogram failed to detect the cancer, and instead specialists said it was an infection from her November surgery. They gave her antibiotics and sent her home twice.

It wasn’t until September 14, when he had an appointment at Waitemata DHB, that a specialist made an urgent referral to Auckland City Hospital for further tests. That’s where he had a biopsy and was diagnosed with cancer.

Waitemata DHB says it did not do a biopsy earlier because multiple imaging tests had failed to detect the cancer.

“It is possible that the cancer recurrence was too small or masked by
concurrent infection on those initial scans, “said a DHB spokesperson.

The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation recommends a “triple screen”, which includes a physical exam, imaging tests and a biopsy, which can be performed the same day. However, this is not part of the DHB guidelines.

Adele Gautier of the foundation said that about 12 percent of cancers are not detected by mammography, particularly lobular breast cancers.

McCarthy told the Herald that she felt she was being judged, unconscious or not, for being Maori and believed this clouded doctors’ judgment of her treatment.

She also claimed that a doctor told her that she was partly to blame for her cancer due to being overweight, which the DHB disputes.

In November, he was offered chemotherapy and radiation as a precaution after surgery. But she refused, saying she did not want to go through the suffering suffered by her two sisters, mom, and two best friends, all of whom died of breast cancer.

“I am also a single mother with two children still at home and the main financial burden falls on my shoulders. I cannot afford to finish work and receive sickness benefit due to my financial responsibilities to support and help my children complete their education. . “

She said it was her body and that she felt that the doctors did not respect her decision to refuse treatment, that she believed it had influenced her subsequent treatment.

“I am incredibly disappointed with the level of cultural competence that practitioners demonstrated, the lack of professionalism, the exclusion of my support people from the complaint process, and the poor care I received,” she wrote in a complaint to the Commissioner of Health and Disability, you are investigating.

McCarthy said she felt robbed because they didn’t listen to her. She has now been referred to Hospice for end-of-life care and will know tomorrow how long she has to live.

A Waitemata DHB spokesperson said the physicians acted in their best interest and worked diligently to provide high-quality care. They later admitted that their cultural needs were not fully met and apologized for that.

Her Jedi daughter described her mother as a “really humble person who had had a very hard life but had always risen above.”

The 23-year-old, who is studying for a degree in law and health sciences, said she was saddened to think about how her mother had been treated.

“To finally be told it’s cancer and it’s what she thought it was after being told over and over again that it couldn’t be, it’s really hard to swallow.”

About breast cancer in New Zealand

• Every day, nine women are diagnosed with breast cancer in New Zealand; one will be Maori.

• Maori and Pacific women are 72% more likely to die from breast cancer than non-Maori.

• In total, about 3,300 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in New Zealand and more than 600 will die from the disease.

• At the age of 50, women can get a free mammogram that detects 88% of cancers and is estimated to give a 10-year survival rate of 92%.

• But 12 percent of cancers cannot be found with a mammogram and require more tests.

• Symptoms of breast cancer include a new lump in the breast or armpit, thickening or swelling of part of the breast, irritation or dimpling of the skin of the breast, redness or peeling of the skin, pain or discharge other than milk on the nipple, including blood.