A Far South Coast woman has died from an aggressive form of uterine cancer just a few months after being misdiagnosed at South East Regional Hospital in Bega.
The family of 56-year-old Simone Crerar from Pambula Beach said last year she was told she just had fibroids and sent home with pain medication.
Brother Stephen said Simone was about get a second opinion in Canberra when she suddenly passed away.
“Because there was nothing on the Far South Coast. Her GP wasn’t helping and wasn’t escalating anything whatso ever so Simone and the family arranged that appointment with a specialist in Canberra,” Mr Crerar said.
“The family were due to take her Canberra a couple days after she passed away. She just ran out of time fortunately,” he said.
The Crerar family is using Uterine Cancer Month to urge local women to strongly advocate for more detailed testing if they have symptoms of the disease.
Simone was tested at South East Regional after complaining of bloating and pain in the abdomen, bleeding, loss of weight and appetite.
Stephen said no one should have to go through what Simone did.
“They should insist on definitive testing. Some sort of biopsy where they determine what that mass is so they know what they’re dealing with,” he said.
“Quite often it can be benign but other times like my sister Simone, it was an aggressive form of cancer and it was actually detected and wasn’t tested properly.
“It’s not just women but their loved ones have to advocate and really push really hard for proper diagnosis and proper testing.
“Let’s face it, life’s too short! You don’t want to have something like a mass in your uterus and ute don’t know what it is. It’s just terrible.
“In hindsight we didn’t know any better. Simone didn’t know any better at the time. She trusted the medicos.”
