May 21--Attorneys for a Franklin Township woman with terminal cancer have filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Wilkes-Barre General Hospital and several area doctors, claiming a curable kidney cancer was allowed to spread because doctors tested the wrong kidney for cancer several times.
In late January, doctors gave Renee Deyo, 47, five months to live.
The suit claims Deyo was being treated for blood in her urine for years and a mass was detected on her right kidney in September 2007. A biopsy was ordered on her right kidney. Doctors mistakenly performed a biopsy and CT scan on the left kidney, which was cancer-free, the suit says.
It took 20 months for doctors to discover their mistakes and properly diagnose the cancer as transitional cell carcinoma in the right kidney, the suit says.
"As a result, Renee Deyo now faces a certain death sentence," the suit says.
The suit, filed in Luzerne County Court by attorneys Matthew Casey and Gregory Haroutounian from the Philadelphia firm Ross Feller Casey, names the following defendants: Wilkes-Barre Hospital Company, Wyoming Valley Health Care Systems, Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, Dr. Satish Patel, Dr. Charles Burns, Riverview Urologist Associates, Dr. Alfonso Rodriguez, Renal Consultants of Wyoming Valley and nurse practitioner Ann Strazdus.
"We plan to leave no stone unturned until we know how and why this happened," Casey said. "The unfortunate reality of this is Mrs. Deyo may not be able to see the matter to conclusion because of her prognosis.
"The delay in diagnosis deprived her of what would have been a substantial opportunity to beat the cancer," Casey said.
Deyo is the former owner and operator of a cleaning service in the area, Renee's Cleaning Service, which is now being operated by her daughter.
With four children and several grandchildren, she is fighting to stay alive to experience the birth of another grandchild this June, her attorneys said.
Deyo was relaxing in a chair on her porch with her husband and sister on Thursday when a reporter visited her home. She said she would like to publicly speak about her case, but had to decline comment on the advice of her attorneys.
Officials with Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, which employs Patel, could not comment because they hadn't read the lawsuit, said hospital spokesman James McGuire.
Calls to Riverview Urologic Associates and Burns were referred to attorney Pat Carey, who did not return a message left at his Scranton office.
Renal Consultants of Wyoming Valley, which employs Rodriguez and Strazdus, did not return a message left with an office manager.
Deyo's suit seeks damages in excess of $50,000.
bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2055
Excerpts from a April 29, 2010 deposition with Attorney Matthew Casey and Renee Deyo:
Casey: Renee, did there come a point in time when you understood you're not going to survive this cancer?
Renee: Yeah, when they tell you you have five months to live.
Casey: And approximately when were you told that?
Renee: I can't remember, I think I figured out I'm supposed to die in June, if that was the case, if you count that back My son's due for a baby in June, and I hope I'm here to see. I love my grandkids. I love my kids. I live for them.
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