Nurse sues doctors

Rosalind Daisy, a qualified registered nurse and a certified mental health nursing instructor at the Dominica State College has filed a lawsuit for negligence against the attorney general and three medial doctors at the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH).

Through her lawyer Anthony Commodore of Elijah Law Chambers, Daisy has asked the court to grant special damages of EC$21,613.16, general damages, interest at the statutory rate, costs and other reliefs as the court decides.

According to the claim, on September 11, 2014, Daisy felt an unusual sensation in both breast. She had an ultra sound done and the results were taken to a doctor at the PMH. The doctors recommended that a needle biopsy be performed on her left breast; the results revealed "atypical ductal hyperplasia."

Atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) is not a form of breast cancer but rather it is a marker for women who may have a risk factor for developing breast cancer in the future.

A doctor at the PMH advised that in his opinion there was no cancer and nothing cancerous was revealed by the biopsy.

However, another doctor at the PMH recommended that an excisional biopsy should be performed. An excisional biopsy is a more involved procedure where the entire abnormality or area of interest is removed.

Meantime, on November 6, 2014 a doctor at the PMH sent Daisy to have a procedure known as "wire guide inserted" performed since the lump/lesion was non-palpable. That was done and she was released from the hospital the same day.

However, on November 13, 2014 she received a phone call from the PMH requesting that she presents herself at the PMH since the report revealed "Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. (IDC)" That is the abnormal cancer cells that began forming in the milk ducts have spread beyond the ducts into other parts of the breast tissue. After discussions it was decided that Daisy needed to have a mastectomy performed on her left breast. That was done on November 20, 2014.

On November 28, 2014 Daisy observed swellings to the surgical site and she went to the Dawbiney Ward at the PMH where she was treated.

Later oral chemo treatment was prescribed but Daisy questioned that in the absence of certain results after doing further tests.

She was refereed to Trinidad and left Dominica in January 2015. In Trinidad a medical director and consultant oncologist requested her slides/blocks from Dominica to have them tested.

On May 6, 2015 Nurse Daisy was informed that the results of the test indicated that there was "no cancer found in the specimen". In other words she was "cancer free" and there was no need to have performed the mastectomy and the removal of her left breast that was healthy and was not affected by any cancer or any other form of sickness.

Officials in Trinidad then wrote to the Government of Dominica seeking clarifications as to whether there had been any "mix ups" with the labeling of the slides sent to them. They received no response.