Woman Cries Out, Set to Sue NHS After Being Kept on Chemotherapy for 6 Years and Half Years

A devastated mom named Samantha Smith is taking the NHS to court after she claims she was given way too much chemotherapy following her brain tumor diagnosis back in 2014.

Samantha, now 45, says doctors told her she needed immediate surgery, and afterward, she went through radiotherapy and a long stretch of chemo while being treated at University Hospital Coventry. The problem? Guidelines recommend patients only get the drug for about six months, but Samantha was kept on it for a staggering six years and six months.

She explained that her consultant oncologist, Professor Ian Brown, finally told her to stop the treatment right after he retired—even though she’d been on it for so long. Now, Professor Brown is facing an investigation by the General Medical Council.

Feeling betrayed, Samantha has brought in lawyers to dig into her care, worried that others might have gone through the same unnecessary ordeal. On top of that, she hasn’t been able to work since learning about her condition, and she’s dealt with brutal side effects like constant fatigue, infections, and even rotten teeth.

In her own words: “Undergoing chemotherapy is a gruelling process and I’ve been very unwell for the best part of a decade. But I told myself it was all worth it to get better. So to find out that around six-and-a-half years of my treatment wasn’t needed came as a huge shock.

“I feel like that part of my life has been stolen from me, as I spent so long unable to function properly and just getting by day-to-day. I also had the burden of getting myself to monthly blood tests, collecting my tablets and keeping myself protected during the pandemic, which wasn’t easy when I felt as ill as I did.

“I can’t move my right side leg upwards and can’t move my shoulder.

“All I want to do now is get some answers and help make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

When Samantha was first diagnosed in 2014, surgeons couldn’t remove all of the tumor. She had regular MRI scans over the years, and it wasn’t until 2021—seven years later—that she was told her condition was stable and she could finally ditch the meds.

But it was only after Professor Brown’s retirement that the truth came out: she’d been through six and a half years of chemo that wasn’t needed.

The University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, which employed Professor Brown, is now doing an internal review into the whole mess and why the medication was dragged out for so long. They’ve reached out to Samantha and her family, saying they’re “very sorry for the excessive treatment” and the toll it’s taken on her.

In their letter, the trust admitted that the long course of chemo didn’t follow national guidelines and “not supported by scientific evidence.” They’ve also put new steps in place to stop it from happening again, like capping the medication at six or 12 cycles, and getting extra checks from a doctor, nurse, and pharmacist to lock in the diagnosis and plan right from the start.