A patient whose laryngeal cancer diagnosis was delayed has received record compensation from the Medical Event Compensation Fund. The amount of PLN 202,971 is the highest sum awarded to date by the Patient Ombudsman under the Fund's operation. To date, more than 300 patients have already benefited from it.
15-month delay in diagnosis. Record amount from Compensation Fund
Published April 15, 2025 10:03
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The Patient Ombudsman has awarded the highest ever benefit under the Medical Events Compensation Fund - PLN 202,971. The compensation went to a patient who was belatedly diagnosed with laryngeal cancer as a result of improper diagnostic procedures.
The reported case involved a patient with recurrent hoarseness, snoring and difficulty breathing. During surgery to remove an oversized pharyngeal tonsil and correct the nasal septum, however, the larynx was not fully evaluated. As a result, the diagnosis of cancer was made more than 15 months late, leading to the need for complete removal of the organ and permanent loss of speech.
Early detection of cancer increases the chances of saving the larynx and improves the prognosis. In this case, there were irreversible changes and a significant deterioration in the patient's quality of life. Therefore, the MPC felt that he should be compensated with the highest compensation to date.
Due to the permanent damage to his health and the inconvenience of his treatment, the patient received a benefit of PLN 202,971 and a certificate allowing him to use healthcare and pharmaceutical services out of turn.
Since the beginning of the Medical Event Compensation Fund, more than 19 million zlotys have already been paid to 318 people. The average benefit amount is nearly 61 thousand zlotys. As many as 99 percent of applicants have accepted the proposed amount of compensation.
The largest number of reports were for patients aged 66-75 (26.7 percent) and 56-65 (16 percent). The incidents most often occurred in the Mazovian (18.73 percent) and Silesian (11.17 percent) provinces. They mainly affected orthopedic, general surgery, hospital emergency departments, obstetrics-gynecology and internal medicine departments.
- Subsequent months of operation of the Medical Event Compensation Fund show that this out-of-court path of redress is beneficial to patients, but also that it is becoming increasingly popular with the public. I am very pleased to see that knowledge of the Fund is reaching an increasing number of patients and their relatives, and thus giving them a chance to be compensated for medical incidents, as well as giving hospitals, receiving guidance from us after these incidents, a chance to improve their operations and raise the level of patient safety," Bartlomiej Chmielowiec stressed.
Source: MPC
