Sweden edition

Doctors miss fist-sized brain tumour

Published: 6 Aug 09 07:50 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/21132/20090806/

A Swedish woman has reported four physicians to a national body that assesses medical negligence after they missed a brain tumour the size of a fist.

Sweden approves medical 'marijuana' (12 Feb 12)
Löfven won’t block profits in care sector (3 Feb 12)
Mothers on antidepressants pose risk for newborns: Swedish study (14 Jan 12)

One after the other, four physicians in southern Sweden made the same diagnosis: the constant headaches their 27-year-old female patient had been experiencing were due to tension. She was prescribed painkillers to treat the headaches.

Six months later, the original doctor discovered the cause of the pain – a fist-sized tumour in the patient’s frontal lobe. The woman then reported the doctors to the Medical Responsibility Board (Hälso- och sjukvårdens ansvarsnämnd - HSAN), a national authority that assesses medical negligence in Sweden. One of the physicians has received a reprimand.

The doctor in question, who is from Småland, was the last in a long line of those who examined the woman for her severe pain.

According to HSAN, the physician did not sufficiently follow up the woman’s medical history, which would have revealed that the nature of the headaches had changed. In turn, that would have led to an earlier discovery of the tumour.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Fark It!	Digg This	Share everywhere
Send to a friend	Printable version	Twitter This

Your comments about this article:

The comments below have not been moderated in advance and are not produced by The Local unless clearly stated. Readers are responsible for the content of their own comments. Comments that breach our terms and conditions will be removed.

09:08 August 6, 2009 by titousmum

it seems there is one pathetic story a day of the "excellent Swedish medical system" in your paper! You really can collect 'em.

The sad thing is, i guess it doesn't take too much effort to find them...

And very few of these idiots get a reprimand- PLUS the poor bloke who's walkin' around with a tumor the size of the Lincoln Memorial - get's WHAT here?

Absolute BUTKUS!!

This country should be embarrassed - instead I just always find them so damn proud of their "excellent medical care" !

really!

Keep posting them. If nothing, someday I can make wall-paper out of the stories for my guest bathroom!

Report abuse »

09:08 August 6, 2009 by Marley420

sounds like a new episode for Homer Simpson...

Report abuse »

09:19 August 6, 2009 by Harding00

I have yet to need to go to the doctor in Sweden because I just moved here last December.This same thing can happen back in the US though. Except, if you don't have health insurance (but make to much to get it free, but not enough to pay for insurance, like was my case for a year before moving here) in the US you won't even be able to go to the doctors because of a headache. Sure, the medical examiner will find your brain tumor, but it'll be a tad bit too late. I am not saying there is an excuse for her being told it was merely tension, and I think that the doctors should get reprimanded, fired, fined, whatever. I am not scared of the medical care here in Sweden, just scared of the "get you in and out" (after you wait a long time) way of doing things (or so it seems). I think we, as patients, need to be a little more forceful with doctors, though I think that is very un-Swedish, being forceful.

Report abuse »

09:22 August 6, 2009 by peropaco

The woman is probably a foreign resident of Sweden and like in many other cases; Swedish doctors don't administer the same care as they would if the patient was a Svensson, Swenzzon. Go home, take a few Alvidon or Ipren and come back in a couple weeks if the pain persists.

Report abuse »

10:15 August 6, 2009 by Kaethar

Is anyone on here a neurologist? -.- That the doctors showed consistency in their diagnoses hint that this tumor was not easy to find. But I guess everyone will fall for a headline. -.- I can't judge this case without more background information.

Report abuse »

10:33 August 6, 2009 by DMatni

From my bad experiences with doctors here, I've unfortunately developed a great mistrust for them, especially doctors at the vårdcentral. To be honest, I do think that doctors treat Svenssons and foreigners with the same level of indifference. The only difference is that Swedes are more used to it than we are and it is very un-Swedish to complain or even to visit the doctor for minor symptoms altho I'm not sure what qualifies as minor.

A classic case I've heard is of my friend's husband who was chopping firewood, lost his grip on the axe which then landed on his head and gave him a big, bloody gash. The man refused to go see a doctor, saying all he needs is to clean the gash, take an alvedon and rest for a day. Even his wife thot he was being an idiot but she's Russian. :P Oh he finally did go to the vårdcentral when he got headaches 3 days later and they sent him home, told him to take alvedon and rest for a few days. Typical right?

Report abuse »

10:59 August 6, 2009 by Puffin

It's tough but it is impossible for healthcare services to be accurate 100% of the time.

It is very difficult to diagnose brain tumours sometimes - espcially when patient's come in an compalin of vague and diffuse symptoms such as headaches. If they sent everyone who complains of a headache for an MRI scan then the queues will grow to be huge - and those with obvious tumours won't be able to get appointments

Report abuse »

11:26 August 6, 2009 by stelmed

I am a medical doctor and I moved to Sweden 2 years ago in order to get my training here. Allow me to give my point of view:

Mistakes in medical practice is a huge problem nowadays. It happens all around the world and unfortunately is one of the leading causes of death for hospitalized people. You can find a well-known study (2001 or 2002) in the very respected JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association) according to which human mistakes is the 4th cause of death in the american hospitals.

In Sweden things are not any different than any other developed country. What maybe happens here is that very often such cases become very popular.

The swedish healthcare system works very well and there are a lot of proofs for that (one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world, life expectancy in the top group worldwide, rational use of antibiotics, low rate of nosocomial infections and so on).

Report abuse »

13:03 August 6, 2009 by Random Guy

Any competent radiologist will tell you that a ~10cm lesion is pretty hard to miss. The article is unclear as to whether any of the four physicians mentioned is a radiologist, but this sort of thing is pretty inexcusable.

Report abuse »

#10

13:44 August 6, 2009 by svensson1982

I am a doctor and this case is so ambigious and I believe we shouldn't judge it from this article. There few symptoms that we call them ( red flags ) that when we found them or the patients tell us they have we should be alerted toward something serious!

Not all patients with brain tumours have these flags and not always the headaches mean a tumour. So maybe the doctors have asked her or him all the important questions and the patient denied having these symptoms.

I wonder why the people always jump to attack doctors and blame them immediately. If you think you can do a better job then please go and be a doctor!

But since the socialstyrelsen have decided on the doctors have made mistake then propabley the doctor did a mistake but before starting to hate him ask him how many lives have he saved before missing this case?!!!!!

Regards,

Report abuse »

#11

14:02 August 6, 2009 by Random Guy

@Puffin: you think the queues for MRIs aren't huge now? Recently I tweaked an old injury, for which I'd had surgery several years ago. After going through the vårdguiden nonsense (I was indeed told to take some Ipren and come back in a month, despite telling them I'd already done so on my own for two weeks, to no avail) I finally spoke to an orthopaedist at Sophiahemmet in Stockholm. He said a follow-up MRI was appropriate, and said their first available slot was on 1 July... which would have been fine, except this phone call took place during *the second week of April*. When I mentioned this to a half-dozen Swedish friends and colleagues, they all shrugged their shoulders and said this was quite typical. By comparison, while I was at university in the US, I had three MRIs done (two for the injury, one for an unrelated matter). Despite being on student insurance -- which was universally regarded as being very, very bad there -- I never had to wait more than 10 days for a scan.

Report abuse »

#12

16:15 August 6, 2009 by mkvgtired

stelmed, I am not a doctor, but do know how ridiculously complicated the human anatomy is. I am surprised doctors get diagnoses correct as often as they do. Unfortunately with how many tests are required to find uncommon problems misdiagnosis will probably be a problem forever.

Report abuse »

#13

16:52 August 6, 2009 by NJGirl

Frontal lobe tumors are notoriously silent, so other than headache there is very little or nothing on examination to suspect a tumor. Problem with this wonderful Swedish socialized medicine is the fact, they do not have enough money to do MRI for every one with the headache. In US every NEW ONSET headache gets the MRI. Maybe 1,000 of them will be negative but 1,001 will save somebody's life by discovering an operable lesion. Sweden does very good job in saving babies ( low infant mortality) and later on lets them die from insufficient diagnostic abilities. Swedish doctors need to sharpen their bedside diagnostic skills and try to spend more time with patients to obtain better history since they do not have the American standart diagnostic backup.

Report abuse »

#14

17:26 August 6, 2009 by Hedley

I am a non EU doctor, I am agree with NJGirl!

I know so little about it, however that woman have more chances to survive being in Sweden than US.

It is not as easy as pie suspecting a brain tumor.

I know its signs, and they are very hard to get: Few doctors would look for suckling, Babinski and grasp (I do!)

Report abuse »

#15

18:06 August 6, 2009 by Random Guy

@stelmed: In Sweden things are most definitely different than other developed countries. Since you're in the medical profession, why don't you look up the comparative mortality rate for prostate cancer here in Sweden as compared to, say, the US? And as for infant mortality rate, life expectancy, etc. -- Sweden has a relatively small and extremely homogeneous population, which has significant implications on the efficacy of medical care. As a doctor, what specific reasons make you believe this approach would scale to larger countries?

@NJGirl, Hedley: Interesting perspective. I appreciate that this diagnosis could definitely be challenging. But I still think the effective standard of care is much lower here than claimed; too much emphasis on speed rather than quality (see http://www.dn.se/sthlm/snabba-lakare-belonas-med-bonus-1.888110).

Report abuse »

#16

20:51 August 6, 2009 by Nilspet

I totally agree with comment #6. This is UNBELIEVABLE. I am surprised why many swedes decide to have medical checkups abroad e.g. in Thailand, Singapore or the UAE when they are on vacation. Swedish medical staff often take them lightly. Doctors here earn quite well but some doctors dont work up to their salary...that is the truth!

Report abuse »

#17

22:17 August 6, 2009 by suso

I am a physician.6 months persistent headache in a young lady is surely a cause of concern to her doctor.Headaches lasting for more than 6 weeks make it imperative to exclude a space occuping brain lesion.

Was any proper neurological examinatin done? or was it a speedy,more of a show business,as not infrequently is the case ?

And ,in particular,was proper ophthalmoscopic examination done? for me,as a doctor, if I had any difficulty or suspicion,I would unhesitatingly refer the patient for a speedy ophthalmological opinion.

A fairly large tumor like that would most likely cause retinal changes`,"papilloedoema".

Failure to do neurological examination,including ophthalmoscopy would be inexusable by any standards.

Report abuse »

#18

04:16 August 7, 2009 by Omidn

I really don't want to generalize and I admit that misdiagnosis can happen anywhere however this doesn't mean that it is normal to happen even 1%. Since there is no legal liability for Drs in Sweden like in North America, we are witnessing repeated cases. Medical Drs should carefully asses and examine patients profile in order to make right diagnosis as precise as possible. Swedish medical association should look into these cases careful y and discipline appropriately.

Report abuse »

#19

10:01 August 7, 2009 by GITM

How long does it take a tumour to get from all but invisible, to fist sized? In this case i would think we are talking about 5 or 6 months....

Report abuse »

#20

10:11 August 7, 2009 by Dick Swinger

knowing as much as I do about internal anatomy, I would also add that it is surprisingly common to find fist sized foreign bodies within internal cavities and a the majority of them are nothing to worry about at all.

Report abuse »

#21

10:22 August 7, 2009 by Jasoncarter

This is just unfortunate, something that slipped through the net. Happens in all countries and is always newsworthy when it does happen as people love a scare story. However, I wouldn't go moaning about socialised healthcare not being able to afford to treat people properly. I went to my GP having suffered from persistent headaches and he referred me for a brain scan. I received the referral within a week and was scanned within 10 days of my initial appointment. The whole thing cost me 120kr for the visit to the GP and 200kr for the brain scan (and 220kr for a DVD of images of my noggin to take home, but that's not really an essential part of the treatment...). To put that into perspective a 60 minute brain scan cost me the same price as a bottle and a half of Chablis.

This is in Stockholm, where you would expect demand to outweigh provision. I was absolutely amazed by the speed of my treatment, not least of all because I was a non-priority case: the doctor was fairly satisified that there was no underlying problem but sent me for a scan as a precaution.

Report abuse »

#22

18:39 August 7, 2009 by Svenska-Flicka

I would have to say this article left a lot out of it, I would be interested to know in the article if she was able to have it removed or if it was too late, here in the US Doctors make a lot of mistakes, that is why all Doctors carry malpractice coverage. Her story is awful but not surprising, but is she gonna live?

Report abuse »

#23

06:38 August 8, 2009 by Bender B Rodriquez

If it was fist size it was probably a benign tumour...

Report abuse »

#24

06:46 August 8, 2009 by NJGirl

Doctors in US do not carry malpractice insurance because they make a lot of mistakes. Quite frankly they make them rather infrequently. Malpractice insurance is mandatory in order to obtain hospital privilieges for admiting patients to the hospital. This patient hopefully has a benign tumor like menigioma, otherwise she will most likely die thanks to socialized, rationed Swedish medicine.

Report abuse »

#25

06:56 August 8, 2009 by Bender B Rodriquez

Bollocks, my family has plenty of experience of Swedish cancer treatment, and I can say that once a tumour is diagnosed the treatment is excellent and extremely swift. The problem is that people go to the doctor too late, why also many tumours are harder to treat. Of course, if we would increase our health care budget to the standard of the US (three times more) we would be able to do a MRI for every headache,...

Report abuse »

#26

22:55 August 10, 2009 by davisucr

Brain tumors are rare, 19,000 a year in the US. Most doctors have never seen one. The issue is that a CAT scan was not done as it would have been in the US., because it cost money that the Swedish system does not normally spend. It is probably a GBM and she has a limited time in which to live. It will cost over $200,000 to treat the tumor. Because we live in the US, when my husband had that size tumor, we got surgery, chemo and radiation. After a year, my husband is still ok. My husband's has cost $600,000 and counting; but we have insurance with a stop loss and he is getting the treatment he needs.

Report abuse »

#27

08:40 August 11, 2009 by ausboi

Sweden is very open about information. It is possible to easily obtain details about medical mistakes just as private income, addresses etc are all freely available. The culture of litigation in other countries- particularly the US and Australia- acts to cover up these medical errors so they rarely are fully detailed in the media. To be able say sorry in Sweden is a strength of character. In the US & Oz it means you will be sued. In other countries people are given contracts to sign that ensure their story never gets out. Don't think medical mistakes only happen here. They happen everywhere. You just don't hear about them. Believe me, I know, I used to work in the legal department of a hospital.

Report abuse »

Today's headlines

Masked man raped cyclist in Malmö park

After a 28-year-old woman was pulled off her bicycle and raped by an unidentified assailant in Malmö over the weekend, and police are fearing it could be the work of a budding serial rapist. READ (4 COMMENTS) »

Dramatic rise in dementia numbers in Sweden

Every second Swede is at risk of developing dementia, according to a new study from Umeå University, which concentrated on the 85+ population in northern Sweden. READ »

Rise in polls 'Löfven-effect': political expert

Since the new Social Democrat party leader Stefan Löfven took up the post, the party is gaining strength in the polls, causing political experts to speak of a ”Löfven-effect”. READ »

Narcolepsy victims in new compensation bid

Families of children in Sweden suffering from narcolepsy caused by vaccination for the swine flu can expect some form of compensation, Swedish health minister Göran Hägglund said on Sunday in response to new calls for help from parents. READ (1 COMMENT) »

Löfven ready to negotiate over nuclear power

The new leader of the Social Democrats Stefan Löfven has indicated he's ready to negotiate with the government over the future of nuclear power despite a previous party decision to phase out nuclear energy in Sweden. READ (1 COMMENT) »

One in five Swedes 'believes in ghosts'

One in five Swedes believes that people rise from the grave after they've died, a new survey has shown. READ (7 COMMENTS) »

Malmö murders linked to fake online firms: report

Several of the recent killings in Malmö have been linked to financial fraud and fake companies trading online, according to sources close to the ongoing murder investigations. READ (8 COMMENTS) »

Flying Finn Latvala claims Swedish rally title

Finnish driver Jari-Matti Latvala claimed the Rally of Sweden title near Hagfors in western Sweden on Sunday, the sixth win of his career. READ »

More Science & Technology

20 things to know before moving to Sweden

As diverse as Sweden is, there are a few societal norms that are distinctly Swedish. Understanding a handful of them will hopefully prepare you culturally before you relocate. When you're invited home to a Swede, you better be on time and take your shoes off, writes expat Lola Akinmade-Åkerström. Read more »

How far can English take you in Sweden?

Sweden is a country where almost everyone can speak English. So why bother to learn Swedish? Edina Varnagy from Hungary managed with English for a whole year but then found that Swedish could open doors – to a job, a social life and greater understanding. Read more »

Click here to get more from Follow Sweden

Find a new job in Sweden now

13/02	Store Manager Nike Randstad AB	Stockholm
13/02	Risk agent to Klarna's new team, Payment Operations Klarna	Stockholm
13/02	R&D Chemists Jotun AS	Sandefjord
13/02	Office Manager to Hansoft Hansoft	Uppsala
13/02	Service Engineer The Timken Company	Hovedstaden
13/02	Financial Controller Contaplus	Göteborg

ALL JOBS »

Today's most read Today's most commented

In cooperation with DoToday

Jobs in Sweden, in English

503 jobs available
220 new jobs this week
22 new jobs today

ALL JOBS »

Jobs available: 503

Show all jobs in Sweden

Noticeboard

13/02 Apartment Needed Immediately
13/02 a room available for rent
12/02 Appartment in Gulmarsplan
12/02 Apartment available in Kista.
12/02 Rivstart A1+A2 - One last set , hurry !!
12/02 Need a room or apartment to rent in södertälje

SHOW ALL NOTICES »

Discuss

13:54 Tax deductible for rented property
13:51 Had problems with my boyfriend
13:47 A question answered!
13:39 Where do you live?
12:48 Plumbing pipe fittings
12:30 Tires for SUV
12:29 Supermarket frustration irks
12:26 Narcolepsy in children
12:15 Need to replace windows
11:51 What is death?

FULL INDEX »
JUST THE NEWS »
LATEST TOPICS »

The Local's new Marketplace
Find products and services that are specifically focused on English speakers living in Sweden!
FULL DETAILS

English Speaking Therapist Stockholm
British-Australian Male Counsellor. Counselling Therapy for Depression, Mental Health, Sex, Relationship & Expat Issues
08-559 22 636 or CLICK HERE

Counseling in English
Individuals & Couples - Stockholm Beth Rogerson PhD - Clinical, Marriage & Family Therapist
Click or call 08-5580 1266 now

Doctor of Psychology
Therapy in English in Stockholm Trained in California Individuals & Couples (08) 93 81 48 FREE phone consultation
Visit anxiousorblue.se

Get on the Tennis Court with www.babolatshop.se
The new Online Tennis Store with the largest selection of Babolat Products in Sweden
http://www.babolatshop.se

Turning Point Counseling
Turning Point Counselling centre offers the international community of Stockholm a safe space for personal development, counselling and coaching.
http://www.turning-point.se/show.asp

Swedish Down Town
Swedish Down Town PR Consulting and Productions is an innovative business company which provides valuable assistance with Public Relations and Communications in the swedish and the international market.
www.swedishdowntown.com

Advertise