Bergamo, lung cancer mistaken for low back pain: a woman dies in Treviglio

A lung tumor mistaken for low back pain: this is how Stella Alaimo Franco, a 61-year-old from Treviglio, in the province of Bergamo, died. The woman died on March 30 due to cancer metastasis. In December she showed up at the emergency room in her city with severe pain in one leg but she was immediately discharged with the diagnosis of low back pain and no prognosis. Her children therefore decided to file a complaint alleging the crime of manslaughter against three doctors at the Treviglio Hospital, as well as against the Asst Bergamo Ovest.

The children’s complaint

Monica and Andrea, the victim’s children, spoke to the Bergamo edition of Corriere della Sera. “They told us that if the exact diagnosis had been made in time, even just a few weeks before what actually happened, things could have gone differently”, they underlined. When Stella Alaimo Franco, following her visit to the emergency room in Treviglio, was then examined at the Cancer Institute of Milan, they diagnosed her with a “multi-metastatic fourth stage lung adenocarcinoma with peritoneal carcinomatosis”. “As we were told by the team that treated him in Milan – they added – if that type of tumor had been diagnosed in time it could have been cured and the delay in the incorrect diagnosis by the Treviglio doctors caused serious consequences, since the disease had advanced irreversibly.”

Worsening of the disease

The woman’s illness worsened rapidly and in just over three months she died: “Why wasn’t the mother subjected to more in-depth tests from the first moment?”, ask her children. “What pushed us to report is the hope that something like this will never happen again. And that no child will lose a parent in this way, as happened to us.”