Several months ago I saw a new patient who was referred (peds surgical specialty) for a benign cyst. At the wrapping up stage of the encounter patient’s mother inquired about another mass patient had that was rapidly growing and had been previously diagnosed as a lipoma. On my exam, this mass was absolutely not consistent with lipoma. I advised them we could remove this mass but would like MRI for further eval preop. Not long after seeing me they end up visiting ED at another hospital for a complaint (trying to be vague here) that ultimately was due to mass effect of this tumor. Had excisional biopsy of the mass at said outside hospital and turned out it was an aggressive sarcoma, stage IV at diagnosis. Patients mother told me they’d seen several doctors at primary care and urgent care for this and advised no further workup was needed/given the runaround in a sense.

The patient ended up coming back to see me now for a complication from chemo/radiation. This poor mother.…