Specialists, Interior Health face malpractice suit from Kelowna man

Photo: Contributed

FILE- Interior Health is named in a malpractice suit filed last week.

An Okanagan man is suing Interior Health and several doctors for malpractice after a cancer misdiagnosis delayed his care and allegedly put him at greater risk of a life-altering outcome.

According to a statement of claim filed April 10, Jeffrey James Keith embarked on a medical misadventure in 2023 when he went to the doctor to seek care for recent fatigue and a lump growing in his neck.

His first appointment to address the issue was at a West Kelowna walk-in clinic on Jan. 16, 2023. After a check-up, he was sent for an ultrasound and bloodwork. When those results came in another appointment was scheduled with a specialist for an ultrasound.

The claim said on Jan. 27, 2023 he was back at the walk in clinic to discuss the ultrasound results, and was referred to another neck and head specialist. That doctor also made a referral for a pelvis scan and further bloodwork.

Within a week, Feb. 3, 2023, Keith had the biopsy and a CT scan by the head and neck doctor and follow up appointment was scheduled.

On Feb. 7, 2023 a diagnostic radiologist reviewed the biopsy, Keith’s claim said.

“Reactive lymphocytes, macrophages and a few scattered reactive benign squamous cells,” the diagnosis said. “Negative for malignancy. Consistent with cyst with some of the features favouring brachial cleft cyst.”

When Keith had a tele-health appointment with the walk-in doctor he was reassured that the results were benign, the claim alleges.

The CT scan still went ahead on Feb 22, but that doctor found that the cyst “was highly concerning for malignancy," the lawsuit claims.

Regardless, a week later he was told he'd get a non-cancer surgery for removal.

He reached out to the doctor he was referred to and told that doctor was out of office for weeks.

Little is offered in the statement of claim to explain how Keith was faring in the meantime but the lawsuit indicates he wasn’t confident in his diagnosis and treatment plan.

He reached out to the Mayo Clinic March 29, 2023 and was scheduled for an appointment shortly thereafter, on April 10, 2023.

Within a day doctors at the Mayo Clinic reached conclusions that were much more dire than their Kelowna counterparts offered, the claim said.

The lump was suspicious for “cervical note metastatic left pharyngeal tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma.”

Another test, a day later, found that the lump was suspicious for metastatic disease and a biopsy was scheduled.

The specialist back in Kelowna who had found the mass to be not cancerous was then contacted. Results from the slate of tests Keith had undergone were sent to him and by April 25, 2023, a treatment plan was laid out — three months after he first walked into the clinic.

On May 23, 2023 Keith started chemotherapy and radiation treatment and that went on until July 11, 2023.

After all that, on July 2, 2023, Keith suffered a “cancer associated pulmonary embolism while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment.”

After surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, Keith suffered a number of issues.

Some of this, according to the lawsuit, may have been alleviated by more timely treatment of the squamous carcinoma.

The delay, according to the claim, resulted in significant progression of the cancer and required “increased and expanded treatment, illness and injury.”

Keith will have more medical expenses in the future and the claim stated that he has lost present and future income as a result of the issue.

Interior Health has yet to respond to the claim.

* Correction, an earlier version of this story said the clinic was in New York, as per the court document. It was not.