Executor of Jennie Warren’s estate lodges claim for wrongful death against FMC over cancer diagnosis

A family is suing FMC for the wrongful death from cancer of a woman who was too anxious to proceed with an urgent medical procedure – but the hospital says she should have re-booked.

A family is suing Flinders Medical Centre for the wrongful death of a woman who was too distressed for a medical procedure – but the hospital says she should have re-booked.

The executor of the estate for aged care worker Jennie Warren lodged a statement of claim seeking damages after her cancer death in February 2022.

The statement says Ms Warren first complained about bowel issues to her GP in February 2015 and was referred to FMC and attended in July 2015.

She was scheduled for a category one “urgent” colonoscopy and endoscopy, which were to occur within a month, but when she returned for her scan in August she “became anxious and distressed” and the procedure was abandoned.

The plan was to re-book for an “anaesthetic-assisted scope”.

The court documents claim the appointment was not rescheduled and six months later, in February 2016, she returned to FMC suffering severe abdominal pain.

The claim says Ms Warren was told she did not need admission and should get a new GP referral for a colonoscopy and pelvic ultrasound. A new referral was provided and she had an ultrasound within days that was “unremarkable”.

The claim states further testing followed and she was diagnosed with a malignant tumour in May 2017, which had metastasised into other organs.

A woman’s estate is suing Flinders Medical Centre for her wrongful death.

She underwent treatment including multiple complex surgeries in the years that followed but died in 2022.

In the claim, the executor of Ms Warren’s estate asserts the hospital “failed to provide a definitive re-book for the colonoscopy”.

The documents also claim the hospital failed to admit the deceased when she returned in pain in February 2016, failed to diagnose her cancer “within a reasonable time frame” before May 2017, and “failed to prevent the deceased suffering a terminal diagnosis by not detecting and not diagnosing the cancerous tumour prior to May 16, 2017, despite showing signs of disease”.

The claim, which was initially lodged at the Magistrates Court level seeking more than $25,000 in damages, is now being determined by the District Court.

In its statement of defence, FMC denies that it was negligent, nor liable for any payments sought. FMC claims it had requested Ms Warren contact the hospital to reschedule the August 2015 appointment and sent her a letter the next day stating she would be removed from a waiting list if she did not respond within 14 days.

It says the hospital again wrote to Ms Warren and again received no response so she was removed from its waiting list in late September 2015, in accordance with hospital policy.

It says any damages to be awarded should be “wholly or partially reduced” due to her failure to undergo the initial procedure or reschedule her appointment.

The matter returns to court later this year.