CGH ordered to pay estate of late cancer patient $327k

Changi General Hospital (CGH) has been ordered to pay the estate of Ms Noor Azlin Abdul Rahman $326,620, as well as interest at 5.33 per cent, plus legal costs of $105,000 for the delay in diagnosis that led to a relapse of her lung cancer and death at age 39.

She died five weeks after the Court of Appeal ruled in her favour in 2019. Her estate sought $13.46 million in damages, while CGH said the amount based on evidence should be $20,800.

Ms Noor Azlin had gone for treatment at CGH and X-rays of her lungs were taken in 2010 and 2011.

Both times, the radiologist recommended follow-up consultation. But this did not happen.

By the time she was again referred to the hospital by a doctor from Raffles Medical Clinic, her tumour had grown. In spite of treatment, her cancer progressed and she died on April 1, 2019.

The Court of Appeal's judgment in February that year said: "But for CGH's failure to diagnose her in July 2011... we find it unlikely that the lung cancer would have progressed to Stage IIA before resection.

"It was more likely than not that she would not have suffered from nodal metastasis and any consequences that may follow."

By the time her appeal was heard, the cancer had already spread to her brain.

Before the assessment of damages that was released by the High Court yesterday, her estate was awarded an interim payment of $200,000 in September 2019.

In deciding on the amount, Justice Belinda Ang said shortcomings in the estate's claims "have impacted the damages recoverable".

She said, for instance, that "no evidence has been led on Ms Azlin's expected full life expectancy" and that "no justification has been given for the calculation" of her medical expenses post-trial.

And "a pleaded claim for loss of earnings has been retained when it should have been changed to a claim for loss of inheritance".

The amount sought by her estate was also far higher than the $6.7 million Ms Noor Azlin had originally claimed.

Justice Ang said that since Ms Noor Azlin had died, the claims for loss of future take-home earnings and Central Provident Fund monies, as well as for medical expenses, transport costs and nursing care costs, had all dwindled.

The higher claim "is ostensibly making up for this shortfall", the judge added, describing it "as simply contrived in the absence of supporting evidence, among other things".

In an interview with The Straits Times before her death, Ms Noor Azlin spoke about why she had pursued the case in court in spite of her terminal cancer.

"I really had to. I don't want the same thing to happen to anyone else. I am sad it has happened to me but I hope this can change the system so that more lives can be saved," she said.