For more than a year, Charlotte Mollohan thought she had small cell lung cancer.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - For more than a year, Charlotte Mollohan thought she had small cell lung cancer.
Beginning in January 2006, she underwent six weeks of radiation therapy, followed by a course of chemotherapy to eradicate the invasive and often fatal form of the disease, rather than the small tumor she actually had in her lung.
But after the treatment had left her with a shrunken esophagus that made it painful to swallow, Dr. Ho-Huang Chang, director of anatomic pathology at Charleston Area Medical Center, changed his diagnosis, according to a lawsuit filed in Kanawha Circuit Court on Monday.
"In addition to the esophageal post-radiation stricture, Mrs. Mollohan developed complications associated with the chemotherapy treatment prescribed for the diagnosis of small cell carcinoma of the lung - which she did not have," the lawsuit states.
Chang and CAMC are named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed by Charleston attorney William Harvit.
Mollohan, who worked for more than 20 years in the administrative offices of the State Police, has to have a plastic ball inserted into her throat and inflated to stretch it out every four to five weeks, Harvit said.
"All indications are at this point that she'll have to undergo this [procedure] for the rest of her life," Harvit said. "There's no reasonable surgical intervention that's available to her now."
Through spokesman Dale Witte, CAMC officials declined to comment on pending litigation.
The suit contends that Dr. Kurt M. Nellhaus, a lung doctor who performed a bronchoscopy - the removal of tissue samples from the lungs - on Mollohan and then sent the samples to Chang for analysis, was surprised at Chang's diagnosis.
"Interestingly, she is a nonsmoker although she had second hand exposure from her first husband. PET scan imaging did not reveal any metastatic diseases. Her medical history is unremarkable. In all honesty, I am somewhat surprised at [Chang's] pathologic diagnosis [of small cell lung cancer]," Nellhaus wrote in his referral letter to oncologist Dr. Justin Cohen, according to the suit.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - For more than a year, Charlotte Mollohan thought she had small cell lung cancer.
Beginning in January 2006, she underwent six weeks of radiation therapy, followed by a course of chemotherapy to eradicate the invasive and often fatal form of the disease, rather than the small tumor she actually had in her lung.
But after the treatment had left her with a shrunken esophagus that made it painful to swallow, Dr. Ho-Huang Chang, director of anatomic pathology at Charleston Area Medical Center, changed his diagnosis, according to a lawsuit filed in Kanawha Circuit Court on Monday.
"In addition to the esophageal post-radiation stricture, Mrs. Mollohan developed complications associated with the chemotherapy treatment prescribed for the diagnosis of small cell carcinoma of the lung - which she did not have," the lawsuit states.
Chang and CAMC are named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed by Charleston attorney William Harvit.
Mollohan, who worked for more than 20 years in the administrative offices of the State Police, has to have a plastic ball inserted into her throat and inflated to stretch it out every four to five weeks, Harvit said.
"All indications are at this point that she'll have to undergo this [procedure] for the rest of her life," Harvit said. "There's no reasonable surgical intervention that's available to her now."
Through spokesman Dale Witte, CAMC officials declined to comment on pending litigation.
The suit contends that Dr. Kurt M. Nellhaus, a lung doctor who performed a bronchoscopy - the removal of tissue samples from the lungs - on Mollohan and then sent the samples to Chang for analysis, was surprised at Chang's diagnosis.
"Interestingly, she is a nonsmoker although she had second hand exposure from her first husband. PET scan imaging did not reveal any metastatic diseases. Her medical history is unremarkable. In all honesty, I am somewhat surprised at [Chang's] pathologic diagnosis [of small cell lung cancer]," Nellhaus wrote in his referral letter to oncologist Dr. Justin Cohen, according to the suit.
Small cell lung cancer is almost always caused by smoking, and is "very rare" in someone who has never smoked, according to the American Cancer Society's Web site.
In December 2006, Cohen ordered more tests for Mollohan after "only partial regression of her mass," the suit contends.
The following month, Cohen's records noted that he had additional discussions with Chang about Mollohan's case, the suit maintains.
"Dr. Chang reports that it would be highly unusual for a patient to have an atypical carcinoid that would be mistaken for a small cell lung cancer simply because carcinoid tumors are so uncommon, but he feels that he would not be able to differentiate between an atypical carcinoid and a small cell carcinoma based on the biopsy material available to him which he has re-reviewed," Cohen wrote, according to the suit.
In February 2007, Mollohan underwent surgery that revealed she had an atypical carcinoid tumor, the suit maintains. Lung carcinoid tumors are usually cured by surgery alone, the American Cancer Society's Web site states.
"The literature is pretty clear that less than 1 percent of non-smoking patients develop small cell lung cancer," Harvit said. "It was clear to Dr. Cohen that Dr. Chang had no hesitation in making that diagnosis [in January 2006]."
According to the state Board of Medicine's Web site, Chang has no malpractice or disciplinary cases on record. He graduated from Kaohsiung Medical School in Taiwan in 1968, and completed his post-graduate training at the University of Kansas in Kansas City, Kan.
He has been licensed to practice medicine in West Virginia since 1975.
The suit, which has been assigned to Judge Jim Stucky, seeks unspecified compensatory damages.
Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 348-1723.
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