No apology for breast cancer victim

Caro Galloway. Photo / BOP Times

A Bay of Plenty woman who said her doctor failed to diagnose her breast cancer has died.

Caro Galloway died on Monday, leaving behind children Jarred, 11, and Jessica, 16.

Her uncle, Ken Wilson, said she had died peacefully.

"She looked so beautiful," he said. "She almost had a smile on her face. It was quite peaceful."

Mrs Galloway told the Bay of Plenty Times in November that she went to her doctor's clinic in 2006, concerned she had a cancerous lump in her breast.

But she said she was repeatedly persuaded against having it removed.

The incident is the subject of a Health and Disability Commissioner complaint.

Mrs Galloway said at the time that all she wanted was an apology to her children: "If they diagnosed me the first, second, third or fourth time I went in, they might have saved my life. But they didn't. That makes me extra angry because I went quite a few times. I want them to apologise to my children. It's them they have hurt the most."

Mr Wilson said he did not believe she got an apology.

Mrs Galloway saw her doctor in 2006, with pain under her right arm but said she was told it was "just hormones". She then found a lump on her breast, which she said was described as a non-cancerous cyst which would go away.

The pain and lump grew, and other cancer symptoms began to appear. Mrs Galloway said she returned to the same practice, but saw a different doctor, and asked for the lump to be removed. She said she was told removing it wasn't necessary.

In May 2008, Ms Galloway was referred for an ultrasound, and also had a mammogram and biopsy. She said it was immediately apparent she was "riddled with cancer", which had spread to her liver and lungs.