Eye Cancer - lying by omission is lying
My Dad died of ocular melanoma metastatic to the liver. He was completely let down by his consultant who failed to mention he was at a very high risk of dying within 5 years. He was 2 years off retirement. If he’d known how deadly his cancer was he would have retired and spent more time with the family. That doctor took that time away from him and us and I will never forgive him. How can you forget to tell someone they have a greater than 50% chance of dying within 5 years? How can you imply that the person can think themselves lucky as you “got it all” when in fact you only “got it all” in the eye. Lying by omission is lying. It’s poor practice and it’s lack of consent.Ocular melanoma spreads via the bloodstream and can appear years later in the liver. Appalling way to behave. This particular ocular oncologist felt he was God and the NHS let my Dad down as they let him. Those super specialised doctors are accountable to no one – literally. Disgusting.
Tiz
Relative on 14th December 2017
My dad has ocular melanoma. He was miss diagnosed for 18 months and told he had conjunctivitis by a consultant at a specialist eye hospital in Birmingham. An eye consultant then spotted the tumour in dads tear duct and diagnosed OM. He told us that the only treatment was radical facial surgery to remove dads eye and about 1/3 of his face. Dad was 86 at the time and refused surgery. We weren't offered any other treatment. 2 1/2 years later my dad has been fighting cancer when we got an oncology appointment. At this point we hadn't seen an oncologist. Dads tumour now covers about 1/3 of his face. He is weak and struggling to eat. Oncology consultant couldn't believe this was our first referral and told us the original consultant was wrong. The tumour could have been shrunk and dad could have had less invasive surgery. Even at this point they are offering treatment. I feel that I should have known more but excepted opinions of 3 doctors who all told us the surgery was very invasive. I feel like I have let dad down. I am spending every day with him. He is in a wheel chair and very poorly. I love him so much its just hard to watch him fade. He is 89 in a few days time.
ocumelsupporter
Relative on 14th July 2014
My husband was diagnosed with ocular melanoma last year. The primary cancer in the eye was highly treatable but he has been told he is at high risk of the cancer spreading to his liver in the future and this is currently incurable. What has been good has been the amazing support we've received from OcuMel UK, fighting a rare cancer is a lonely scary place to be. My mum had breast cancer and got support from Macmillan but it seems rare cancer patients are left to find fir themselves in terms of funding, treatment availability and emotional support. My husband was lucky in that he was referred to the Royal in Liverpool for his eye cancer and then on to Southampton to monitor his liver. These are the leading hospitals in the UK for treating OM, but not every patient is as lucky and we keep hearing about disparity in treatment paths. We are worry daily about what the future holds. We live in North Wales and understand that the funding available if my husband gets liver cancer is very difficult if not impossible to come by and that we may have to uproot our family and move to England to access treatment should the unthinkable happen. Please don't forget rare cancer sufferers, cancer is horrendous whatever type you suffer from, but if you have the added stress of having a cancer that most consultants don't know how to treat, it is a very scary place to be. Thanks for listening x
