Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Cleveland Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorney: Woman Learns Her “Cancer” Actually a Rare Parasite

Good news can be relative, as any cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland will tell you. One woman learned her cancer was misdiagnosed. But the actual cause of her pain turned out to be a rare parasite, alveolar echinococcosi (AE), that had been growing in her body for the past decade.

“I wasn’t sure what to think,” Cassidy Armstrong recalled learning the life-altering news. “I asked them, ‘Is this good?’ and they said, ‘It’s much better than what we thought you had.’”

What doctors thought she had was fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC), a rare form of liver cancer that typically affects people under 40. Roughly 44 to 68 percent of people with FLC live as many as five years after diagnosis.

“I was getting ready for the worst,” Armstrong said in an interview with TODAY. “I was getting ready to die.”

The Good News? An Incurable Disease She Can Live With

AE is not a fatal disease, but there’s no cure for it either. Armstrong now takes medication on a daily basis and will receive blood tests once a month and a CT scan every six months to make sure the parasite is under control.

“I have mixed feelings about it,” Armstrong admitted. “I’m happy – I like being alive. Psychologically, it’s been really tough. I’m grateful and I’m happy that it’s not what they thought it was. But it’s been very hard.”

As any cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland will comment, the corrected diagnosis is still a very serious condition; however, it’s treatable and certainly better than the misdiagnosed cancer.