Woman’s unborn twins die as a result of her pregnancy being misdiagnosed as cancer

A woman whose pregnancy was misdiagnosed as cancer lost both of her unborn twins as a result of the treatment she was given.

Serpil Baga, 35, had been experiencing pain and internal bleeding, and was subsequently diagnosed with a tumour on one of her ovaries.

After the removal of her tumour, she was closely monitored through regular check-ups and treatment.

Three months on from her surgery, Ms Baga was found to have high levels of the human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) hormone in her body. This hormone is often present with pregnancy or womb cancer.

The doctors looking after Ms Baga did not test for pregnancy, but instead diagnosed her with cancer. She began chemotherapy, however three months into her treatment she started producing breast milk.

Ms Baga was told that this was normal, and was a result of changes in her hormone levels caused by the chemotherapy.

Following this, she was diagnosed with a further two tumours on her womb, measuring 12 and 19 centimetres in length.

Just days before Ms Baga’s surgery to have her tumours removed, she started to bleed heavily. She ended up miscarrying twins.

Ms Baga and her husband are now taking legal action against the hospital and doctors that diagnosed and treated her for negligence. She claims that her doctors never told her that she should avoid becoming pregnant after the first tumour was removed in case the cancer returned.

Her husband Muhammet Baga stated “…regardless of whether it was deliberate or not, I think this is a case of medical negligence, because they did not do all the necessary check-ups, so I will not forgive them.

“We have a disabled son, we left him in the care of other people for three months, so I could take my wife to the hospital every day for chemotherapy. Instead of receiving the fantastic news that we would be expecting twins, my healthy wife was misdiagnosed with cancer and treated for nothing.”

A Chartered Legal Executive Lawyer in the Medical Negligence team at Ashtons Legal, comments:

“This is a tragic case of negligence on the hospitals part, what should have been joyful news after going through the woes of having cancer turned out to be a misdiagnosis. Due diligence was not demonstrated by the medical professionals in this case, as a simple test would have shown that the person was in fact pregnant and was not suffering from a recurrence of cancer. This lady has had to go through the traumatic event of losing her twins and receiving unnecessary treatment which undoubtedly could have been avoided.”