A police officer in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, filed a lawsuit at the Military Court on Friday, because he was informed that he was suffering from advanced cancer one whole year after his operation.
Speaking to media on Friday, the non-commissioned officer described in the lawsuit how his nightmare began when he was admitted to a military hospital for appendicitis surgery. He received the biopsy results a year later.
Meanwhile, the 55-year-old man is terminal ill with the cancer to have already affected at least four of his organs, that is the liver, the pancreas, the long and short colon, the peritoneum. He can no longer be operated and have the tumors removed and only chemotherapy can give him some hope, if any at all.
Video: speaking to media, the police officer urged everyone who had an operation in this hospital and biopsies were delayed to ask for them as soon as possible. “They have executed me!” he said with trembling voice.
A year of nightmare
The sequence of tragic events and the omissions of the doctors that turned his life into a nightmare is described in the lawsuit filed today, Friday, by the 55-year-old police officer who was admitted for appendicitis surgery and was informed a year later that he suffers from terminal cancer.
His nightmare began in early December 2022 when he was admitted to a military hospital to undergo surgery for “acute appendicitis”. During the operation, part of the appendix was removed and given for biopsy as it is usual practice nowadays.
The police officer underwent surgery, with the doctor informing him that everything went well and that a sample was taken for biopsy, as is the case with every appendectomy. However, the nightmare, without the man knowing it yet, had already begun.
He was discharged from the hospital the following day.
In his documents it was stated “Appendectomy without malignancy or peritonitis without destructive systemic or coexisting”, while the final diagnosis is that of “Acute Appendicitis.”
After a year, on December 19, 2023, he received a phone call from the director of the 1st Surgical Clinic of the Military Hospital, who told him to make an appointment at his office.
“Given the long time that had passed since my surgery, in December of the previous year, I did not think about it and asked him what issue he wanted the appointment to be about. The doctor’s response was that they received the biopsy result from the surgery I had on my appendix a year ago. When I asked him if it was something to worry about, his response was “unfortunately it is, otherwise I would not have called you.”
The next day, the officer and some family members met with director who revealed to the concerned family “unfortunately I have to tell you that the biopsy sample was diagnosed with an adenocarcinoma (malignancy) and some further tests need to be done, to see how we will treat it, such as a CT scan of the upper and lower abdomen and a colonoscopy.”
When the doctor was asked why the biopsy results took so long, he responded that “they usually take a while, but in this case, the truth is that it took a little longer, because it’s one of those cases that are not considered that dangerous.”
He was also informed, during this one year, the cancer had metastasized to other organs and had essentially become incurable.
The man turned to private oncologists, had more tests and scans, he underwent more surgeries, however, not all tumors could be removed.
As the police officer ultimately emphasized in the lawsuit he filed, “the cancer I had was acute appendicitis, the operation of which I had undergone a year ago! That is, I had the cancer inside me for an entire year without anyone from the responsible and treating doctors informing me. In the operating room report, the surgeon wrote “The situation is considered not amenable to surgical treatment”, a phrase that confirms the advanced stage of the cancer.”
sources: in.gr, protothema.gr, ANT1 TV, others
