‘I am so angry’ – 80-year-old woman experiences unnecessary surgery and delays in diagnosis at under-investigation breast cancer service

A woman in her 80s has spoken of how her experience of an under-fire breast cancer service was akin to a “cattle market” – and how she was then told she had undergone surgery unnecessarily.

Yvonne underwent three rounds of surgery in 12 weeks, following delays in her cancer being diagnosed by the County Durham and Darlington Breast Cancer Service, and also had issues with the stitches she received following the removal of a further lump that developed a year later.

Yvonne, then 80, was forced to sit for hours in waiting rooms, despite having an appointment, only to be seen for a matter of seconds by Mr Amir Bhatti, lead surgeon in the service – which is now subject to investigation, with the care of potentially thousands of women being reviewed.

She was also given the devastating news that she needed a mastectomy by a doctor who poked his head around the door and then abruptly left moments later.

Late last year, four years after her surgery in 2021, Yvonne was contacted by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust to say they had found problems in her care. The Trust said the care she received had been “lax” and also she underwent one operation that was unnecessary – although did not specify which one, and even when she asked, was just told it was ‘not the mastectomy’.

Now aged 84, Yvonne says at the time, she never questioned her care or the impersonal treatment she received – but now feels “so angry” at what she endured at both the University Hospital of North Durham and Spire Washington Hospital.

“I was spoken to so badly by staff, my consultations with Mr Bhatti probably totalled about two minutes across three different appointments, and it was absolutely awful how I was given the news I needed a mastectomy – this doctor, who didn’t even introduce himself, didn’t even come into the room, he kept the door propped open then left,” says Yvonne, from Durham.

“As awful as it was, looking back, at the time I just thought that must be how they did things. I’d never been to hospital for years before this, so I believed this just must be normal. When I was told that there were problems in my care and I had one surgery too many, the best way I can describe it is that my brain froze – and then the anger took over. I am so angry with how I have been treated.”

After being referred by her GP with a lump in her breast in early 2021, Yvonne was referred to Mr Bhatti’s clinic at Spire Washington Hospital in March of that year, where she sat for several hours being moved “from corridor to corridor – there were so many of us it was awful, and the wait was so long,” she recalls. Yvonne is diabetic and she said there were not even any refreshments available during her wait.

Once she was seen by Mr Bhatti, he told her she would need a biopsy and to await a letter – at her next appointment, at the University Hospital of North Durham, she was told the same again, and still did not receive a biopsy.

Yvonne did not undergo a biopsy until May, and later that month had a lumpectomy operation. In July, she was told she had cancer and underwent a procedure to remove nodes, and was told at the end of August she needed a mastectomy – this happened the following month, in September 2021. Having undergone three operations in around 12 weeks, Yvonne says it left her feeling tired.

“The care was very impersonal throughout, I have never been spoken to in such an abrupt way, but I just came to accept it. It was a very difficult time of course, I discovered I had breast cancer, I had three operations, I had a mastectomy – but at the grand old age of 80, you just get on with things,” says Yvonne.

“But knowing now that I had one surgery too many, which meant a longer recovery period, and my care should have been better and quicker – as the Trust said, it was ‘lax’ – is very difficult. One of my friends has had a similar experience, and she has said she has blocked it all out as it’s so traumatic for her. For me, I haven’t.”

A year after her mastectomy, Yvonne was forced to return to Mr Bhatti to have a lump examined which had appeared under her arm – another consultation which lasted “a matter of seconds – he said came into the room said ‘remove it’, and that was it,” she recalls.

However, although her stitches from this removal procedure were meant to dissolve, weeks later Yvonne was forced to visit her GP, who told her they were too big to dissolve and were the cause of discomfort that had developed.

“When I was contacted by the Trust and I saw all the publicity around the breast cancer service, I was really shocked. My daughter said she knew all along that something was not right, but what we have discovered has been truly awful,” she says.

Yvonne is being supported by specialist solicitors at law firm Slater and Gordon, which is acting for significant numbers of women across County Durham in pursuing answers from County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

“Yvonne’s story of impersonal and abrupt care is really distressing – this is a lady who was 80 years old at the time, who was diagnosed with cancer and told she would lose her breast. Surely she is deserving of the very best of care, compassion and support – sadly she would experience quite the opposite,” says Megan Limburn-Reynolds, who is representing her.

“The fact she was also then told that her care should have been better and she underwent unnecessary surgery only compounds this – they did not even tell her which of her three surgeries was deemed not to have been needed. Her whole experience of this service was absolutely unacceptable. Yvonne, like so many other women, deserved so much more.

“We will work with Yvonne to help her get the answers and accountability she needs and deserves, and to understand what went wrong in her care.”