Woman dies after 35-day wait for cancer surgery

Radhika Narayan. Photo / Supplied

A woman with ovarian cancer, whose case was deemed "urgent", waited more than a month for surgery.

Radhika Narayan died in November, aged 41, from kidney failure caused by the cancer.

Her husband, Narayan Subramanian, has made a complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner, and to the Auckland District Health Board over the care it provided.

The DHB says it provided proper care within normal timeframes.

Mrs Narayan was admitted to hospital in late August with a swollen leg. An ultrasound scan confirmed a blood clot in her leg and a large pelvic mass.

A CT scan followed, and, deemed urgent, Mrs Narayan was referred on September 1 for an MRI scan, done on September 9.

A meeting of specialists on September 15 decided on surgery to remove the tumour, which was considered "suspicious for malignancy". A series of pre-surgery appointments with specialists ensued and she also had to have an elective procedure.

The operation took place on October 14 but the tumour was not removed because it had spread too far.

"Proceeding with the operation would only have put Radhika at great risk without the benefit of a cure," the DHB's chief medical officer, Dr Margaret Wilsher, wrote to her husband "... she had what appeared to be a very aggressive gynaecological cancer".

When asked why Mrs Narayan had to wait 35 days until the operation, despite being considered urgent, Dr Wilsher told the Herald that this was the normal amount of time it took to organise complex, high-risk cancer surgery.

"Thirty-five days might seem a long time, but in reality that's what it takes. It takes about a month from presentation and diagnosis to definitive treatment."

Mr Subramanian said his main complaint was that a needle biopsy of the tumour was not taken early on. This would have provided a "back-up" plan of using chemotherapy if, as happened, surgery didn't fully work out.

Chemotherapy was discussed in late October - to slow the cancer but probably not to cure it - but Mrs Narayan wasn't given this treatment because of her kidney problems.

Dr Wilsher said it was appropriate that a biopsy was not done before the surgery as it would have delayed the operation, and surgery was considered to be the "definitive procedure".

But Mr Subramanian said that if the tumour had been biopsied before the surgery, his wife might have had chemotherapy, found she didn't respond to it, and they would have learned earlier where things were going.

"I would have rather known earlier that she was not going to survive. I probably could have done more things with her. I would have had her at home, not in the hospice."

Mr Subramanian said it was only days before his wife's death that it was announced there was no hope.