Women who have been diagnosed with cervical cancer after receiving negative Pap smear results may be able to make late cancer diagnosis claims.

For some women, their families are left to pick up the pieces. The family of Julie O’Connor, a nurse from Bristol, England, died last month at age 49 after six different tests missed her cervical cancer, according to The Independent.

Julie and her family blamed the NHS health system because in 2014, NHS told her she had negative results with her Pap test. After a half dozen tests and biopsies, Julie finally received a cervical cancer diagnosis in 2017, but it had progressed to the point she was terminally ill.

Julie was a nurse with NHS for 13 years. When she received the negative result in 2014, she said she still felt there was something wrong and continued to try to find answers. Three days before she died, she had a video recorded while she was in a hospital bed, where she said, “It’s disgusting I have been suffering the way I have and I continue to suffer.”

“We hold them fully accountable,” said Kevin, Julie’s husband of 31 years, speaking to The Independent. “The pathologist and the gynecologist, who had several opportunities to intervene. I hold them responsible, and I do hold the board of directors at North Bristol Trust accountable. They put me and Julie through this.”

The NHS has been under scrutiny for the past year due to late cancer diagnosis claims and because women have waited up to four months to find out their test results.

The Independent reports that in the UK, women ages 25 to 49 are eligible for cervical cancer screening every three years. Whether it’s due to the bad publicity, lack of awareness or other reasons, the number of women receiving their regular pap smear is currently at 71 percent, a record low.

Family Files Late Cancer Diagnosis Claims

According to the BBC, Julie’s family filed a lawsuit against North Bristol NHS Trust. The family says the Trust admitted liability and extended an offer to pay damages, but Kevin says that’s not enough. He says one of the things Julie said was that she never wanted another woman to experience what she did.

Kevin also said the current review of missed cervical cancer cases appears to only going back to March 2017. Because Julie’s cancer was missed in 2014, he wants the hospital to reach back at least that far.

One of the key issues with the Pap test is that each slide must be examined by the human eye to find cancerous or pre-cancerous cells. Fatigued, overworked lab technicians might miss some cervical cancer diagnoses.

If a woman is told she has a normal Pap smear and follows medical guidelines to return in three years, the cancer could reach Stage 3 or Stage 4 before it is diagnosed. Later stage cancer is much harder to cure.

Missed cervical cancer diagnoses can make what should have been a curable cancer turn into a fatal situation.