A rural doctor has been banned from working after misdiagnosing a woman with glandular fever and anxiety weeks before she died of liver cancer and heart disease.
The 71-year-old woman visited GP Kin Vui Tan in Lithgow, central western NSW, five times in early 2021 with ‘alarming’ blood test results and rapidly declining health.
Tan ignored signs of serious illness, including liver function levels more than 25 times higher than normal, according to a case brought by the Health Care Complaints Commission.
The woman eventually went to Lithgow’s emergency department and was flown to a hospital in Sydney, where she died on March 8 that year.
The 71-year-old woman visited GP Kin Vui Tan in Lithgow, central western NSW, five times in early 2021 with ‘alarming’ blood test results and rapidly deteriorating health’ (stock image)
Her death was caused by a combination of factors, including a heart attack, blood poisoning and probably cancer.
Tan, who is in his 60s, was found guilty of professional misconduct by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Tuesday and disqualified for two years.
The tribunal was told that the woman’s blood results – which also showed a high white blood cell count and low iron levels – should have raised suspicions of cancer and led to further urgent tests and scans.
“It appears that the practitioner’s level of knowledge was so low that he failed to recognize the significance of these blood tests,” the judgment said.
At a 2021 hearing, Tan said he did not order scans because the woman had no symptoms or because her medical problems had been resolved.
“This simplistic attitude indicated very poor judgment and a serious lack of knowledge,” the tribunal said.
The woman took the blood tests on January 19, but Tan did not examine her or order scans when he reviewed the results during an appointment two days later.
He ignored the pathology lab’s recommendation for an ultrasound of the liver and instead diagnosed him with glandular fever or another viral infection.
By mid-February, the woman had extremely swollen ankles – a sign of liver disease – along with shortness of breath and a high pulse.
Tan ignored signs of serious illness, including liver function levels more than 25 times higher than normal, according to a case brought by the Health Care Complaints Commission (stock image)
Tan prescribed medication to ease the swelling without investigating its cause, blaming the respiratory and cardiac symptoms on anxiety.
A day before the woman, known as Patient A, went to the hospital, Tan diagnosed the pain as reflux when the woman showed signs of coronary artery disease and angina.
The tribunal said Tan continued to justify his failure to consider serious diagnoses and questioned the complaints of the woman’s family.
‘It appears that even after having time to think and the benefit of expert commentary, the doctor is still unaware of how poor his treatment of Patient A was.’
Tan is no longer registered and told the tribunal he has no plans to practice in Australia again.
The tribunal said it would have revoked his registration if it had remained current.
