Three sisters had surgery minutes apart in an attempt to save their lives after discovering that they shared a gene that greatly increased their risk of cancer.

Joanne Kavanagh, Louise Lambert and Michelle King found that they were all carriers of the BRAC1 gene after Mrs King had breast cancer diagnosed. Carrying the gene gave them all an 80% chance of breast cancer and a 40% risk of ovarian cancer. The options were to have regular tests to detect any cancers early, or operations to remove the organs at risk.

Joanne and Louise had not yet shown any evidence of cancer when they decided to have an extreme operation to remove their breasts and womb.

Mrs King said:-

“We feel we are fortunate because we can do something about it. We all want to be here to see our kids grow”.

Mr Gillepsie, a consultant gynaecologist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield works with women who have an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer because of their family history. He believes that greater awareness and developments in genetic screening means that more women are having the tests.

For three sisters in Liverpool the story was very different.

The parents of the three sisters involved had five children in total.

When their father died in his forties of colon cancer their mother wrote to The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust enquiring as to whether her five children should be tested for a hereditary form of bowel cancer as the family knew that the grandfather had died of bowel cancer i.e. their dad's dad but also the grandfather's sister had died of a cancer.

When the mother of the children wrote to the hospital to ask for reassurance in relation to testing for her five children she was reassured that they did not need testing for the hereditary form of bowel cancer.

In December 1999 one of the sisters started to suffer with bowel problems.  Her G.P. referred her to the Royal Liverpool Hospital and in July 2000 she had a colonoscopy and  was informed by the Royal Hospital that she had bowel cancer.

Further to the diagnosis of bowel cancer in this sister they confirmed that as there were three members with bowel cancer, the sister , the father and grandfather, the other four children now needed to be screened for the hereditary form of bowel cancer.

Four out of the five children carried the defective gene which meant that some time in their life they would develop hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC).  The other child did not carry the defective gene.

Out of the four children who had the defective gene, the three with cancer were the three sisters.

Following the (first??) sister’s diagnosis she had most of her bowel removed and as there were some complications during this operation, she was in intensive care for four weeks and then required a colostomy bag, chemotherapy, and was left with faecal urgency.

Also due to the number of operations that she had in intensive care she was very affected psychologically.

The second sister also had most of her bowel removed but did not require chemotherapy.  However, as they had to remove more of her bowel she  suffered with faecal incontinence.

The third sister also required most of her bowel to be removed but sadly she developed secondaries in her ovaries and she died leaving her husband and four young children.

The issue of liability in this case concernedthe hospital's alleged  failure to screen the girls after their father died, with colonoscopies every two years and whether polyps (pre-malignant cysts) had been found then the colonoscopies would be increased to every year.

If this had been done the cancer would not have developed in the bowel and the third sister would still be alive today to care and watch her children grow.

Rachel Donovan, Associate solicitor at John Pickering and Partners ran the case for the family and in doing so had to go back many generations to assemble a family tree. This meant she had to contact each living member of the family to obtain their authority to use their names in the family tree which would eventually be disclosed to the defendant Trust.

The case on behalf of the family settled during a “round table” settlement meeting with the hospital and Rachel Donovan was able to negotiate a high value settlement.
Rachel Donovan says of the case:-

“I write about the case at this time as I have often thought whether solicitors involved in medical negligence have a wider responsibility to ensure that the public understands the problems that arise in cancer screening cases and the importance of being vigilant in pursuing optimum health care.

The independent colorectal expert in this case, during our first conference, raised an interesting but scary (worrying??) thought, when he said this family may be just the tip of the iceberg, meaning there maybe lots of families out there who have slipped through the cancer screening net over the years.

There is one message I would like to get out to people following my involvement in this case and that is to know and be interested in your family history, ask questions not just about immediate family but also the wider family, and if you think there is a distinct pattern forming over the generations then go with this information to your GP and ask the questions, and keep asking until you get answers. If the GP does not know the answers then ask for a hospital referral and make sure you get the answers. Also use the internet, as there is a great deal of information at the click of a button. Finally, don’t forget if you need any advice in relation to the above then please contact me”

Further information:

Rachel Donovan, Solicitor
John Pickering and Partners LLP
19 Castle Street
Liverpool
L2 4SX

Freephone:    0808 144 0958
Fax:                0151 258 1262

E-mail:           don@johnpickering.co.uk
Website:        www.johnpickering.co.uk

Notes

John Pickering and Partners LLP

About Us

Our clients are people who have suffered injury as a result of a medical accident in the UK.  We are clinical and medical negligence solicitors.  We handle negligence claims against hospitals, GP’s and other medical practitioners for clients across the UK. 

We try to obtain maximum amounts of compensation. 

We are committed to providing public funding (previously known as Legal Aid) and have a franchise from the Community Legal Services Commission.  This means that they have looked at the firm carefully and approved of the way we work.  They consider that we are medical negligence claims specialists.  They trust us to handle medical accident claims properly. 

If you are not eligible for public funding, we can offer a Conditional Fee Agreement, also known as a ‘no win, no fee’ agreement with insurance.  We shall check the best method of funding your claim. 

All 3 of our offices (Liverpool, Manchester and Halifax) are accredited by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. 

Claire Horton is an experienced clinical negligence solicitor who is based in our Manchester office.  She continues to practice as an independent funding ajudicator for the Legal Services Commission and acts on a pro-bono basis for the AvMA helpline.

For further advice on medical negligence in Liverpool please also contact Rachel Donovan and for Halifax contact Ruth Davies, who are both experienced in the field of clinical negligence.

We provide free initial advice to people seeking information about a potential clinical negligence claim. 

If you need advice about a clinical negligence claim, contact us now for information about making a claim for compensation.