A 29-year-old Eugene woman has filed a $9.9 million lawsuit against several doctors, medical centers and a nurse, alleging they failed to diagnose a brain tumor that she suffered from for several years.
Erica Fletes filed the lawsuit last week against Oregon Healthcare Resources, Oregon Medical Group, doctors Donald Mackay, Galen Griffin, Kantee Karki, Stephan Thiede and Eric Spencer, McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center, McKenzie-Willamette Regional Medical Center, Radiology Associates, PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend, PeaceHealth and nurse Rebecca Hope.
According to the lawsuit, Fletes suffered from migraines since at least 2010 and reported head pain and blurred vision to Mackay, her primary care physician.
In 2012, she underwent a brain scan at RiverBend, which showed a 2.2 by 1.1 centimeter mass, but that mass allegedly went undetected by Thiede, who interpreted Fletes’ results.
In February 2017, the lawsuit alleges, Fletes went to the McKenzie-Willamette Hospital emergency room, complaining of intermittent, bilateral throbbing headaches, nausea, photophobia or light sensitivity, right-face numbness, numbness in both arms, and hazy visual loss in her right eye. Hope and Spencer evaluated her for stroke symptoms before determining she was suffering from an atypical migraine and sent her home, the lawsuit alleges. No brain imaging was ordered.
In May, while visiting an ophthalmologist, the eye doctor noted an issue with Fletes’ optic nerve and recommended an urgent neuro-ophthalmologic evaluation. It was during a follow-up MRI 10 days later that a mass was identified. The mass had grown to 3.6 by 2.6 by 3.3 centimeters in her brain and was displacing her brainstem and cerebellum, the lawsuit states. A doctor who followed up on that scan said the mass had been visible in the 2012 images.
In June 2017, Fletes had surgery to remove 75 percent of the tumor. As a result, she has lost permanent hearing in her right ear and her eyelid does not close completely, which requires her to constantly moisten her eye, according to the lawsuit. She continues to suffer headaches, double-vision and facial paralysis.
