Former GOP lawmaker claims Capitol doctors missed his cancer

Former Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) has filed a claim in court alleging that congressional doctors failed to perform follow-up testing on a pancreatic lesion that developed into cancer.

{mosads}LaTourette is seriously ill with the cancer and has asked a federal court in Washington to allow him to give a deposition now in an “anticipated” lawsuit against the federal government, because he might not be able to testify later.

According to the court filing, in early 2012, LaTourette, then still a congressman, went to George Washington University Hospital for an MRI after stomach pain and a diagnosis of mild pancreatitis.

The MRI revealed a 1.5-centimeter lesion on his pancreas. The doctor recommended follow-up imaging in six months. As a congressman, LaTourette’s doctor was at the Office of the Attending Physician at the Capitol.

According to the filing, the hospital doctor told a Capitol doctor about the imaging the day it was taken and sent a report to the Capitol doctor’s office the following day.

The Capitol doctors never performed the follow-up screening six months later, the filing says, and LaTourette himself had not been informed of the need for a follow-up.

It was not until last year, after his retirement in 2013, that he felt abdominal pain once again and doctors at the Cleveland Clinic discovered that he had developed a cancerous mass on his pancreas.

The filing says that his “prognosis remains uncertain yet grave, with no definitive predictions with regard to life expectancy.”

The Office of the Attending Physician did not immediately respond to a request for comment.