Family Awarded $2.5 Million for Cancer Misdiagnosis

A Clark County, Nevada District Court jury has returned a verdict of $2.5 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit involving a cancer misdiagnosis.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Elisa Sanchez, claims that Sanchez's doctor, Steven Lampinen, failed to diagnose cancer, which ultimately led to her death.  In 2004 Sanchez, who was 24 at the time, went to see Dr. Lampinen complaining of pain and blood in her stools.  After 7 months of continued visits to Dr. Lampinen and unresolved rectal bleeding and pain, Sanchez was rushed to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where doctors diagnosed her with aggressive colon and rectal cancer.

After Sanchez died from the cancer in 2007, her family sued Dr. Lampinen and his nurse Brian Bishop on grounds of medical negligence for not conducting a proper examination, discounting her symptoms, and misdiagnosing the cancer, all of which ultimately led to her death according to the lawsuit. The attorney representing Sanchez's family is arguing that if Sanchez had been properly diagnosed and examined when she first complained of pain and blood in her stool, her cancer survival rate would have been 97 percent.

By the time Sanchez was accurately diagnosed, her survival rate dropped from 97 percent to 50 percent. After extensive chemotherapy and multiple surgeries, Sanchez died from the cancer in 2007.

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