Man Sues Hospital Over His Lost Tumor

After Jeremy Morton-Maxson had a tumor on his bladder removed at the University of Washington Medical Center-Northwest on Aug. 17, 2022, just two days after it was discovered, he felt a sense of urgency in finding out if it was cancerous, due to a family history of bladder cancer. After two weeks of waiting to hear back on the results, the Seattle man started calling his urologist daily to see if he could get answers. "It was overwhelming," he tells the Washington Post. "It caused a lot of anxiety." That anxiety didn't dissipate once Morton-Maxson found out why there was a delay—someone had lost his tumor sample before it was able to be analyzed.

Morton-Maxson, 38, is now suing UW Medicine and Washington state, alleging medical negligence and a violation of the center's standard of care, per the Seattle Times. Lawyers representing the university and state, which oversees the university, conceded in an August court filing that the tumor had been lost and still not found, though they insist that error didn't cause any damage to the patient. But Morton-Maxson says the tumor being misplaced has thrown his whole treatment plan into disarray, as he and his care team now aren't sure how to proceed.

Without knowing if the tumor was cancerous, Morton-Maxson says he was left with two not-appealing options: He could either go through grueling preventive chemo to be safe, or he could go back to the clinic every two months to undergo a painful bladder checkup. He chose the latter, and he says he hasn't had any urinary issues since the procedure, per the Sacramento Bee. Still, he may need to undergo these uncomfortable checkups for life, and the distress of the situation has also taken a toll, as he says in his complaint that he was originally told by his urologist before the procedure that the tumor was "likely cancer."

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Now, when he experiences discomfort, Morton-Maxson wonders, per the Times: "Does my stomach hurt from something I ate? Or is the cancer back?" Morton-Maxson also says much of this may have been avoided if he'd simply received some sort of apology over what happened. "I understand that we all make mistakes," he tells the Bee. "But in those instances, you need to hold up your hand and say, 'I messed up and I am sorry.'" (More lawsuit stories.)