Lawsuit: Doctor failed to diagnose cancer quick enough

HUNTINGTON – A Kenova woman is suing a doctor she visited before she was diagnosed with melanoma.

Billie Plymale filed her lawsuit against Kirt Thomas Miller, D.P.M, on June 20 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia at Huntington. She claims Miller diagnosed her with a non-healing lesion more than a year before a biopsy determined it was cancerous.

She charges Miller with failing to timely diagnose her melanoma.

“As a direct and proximate result of the negligence, carelessness, recklessness and deviation from the appropriate standard of card of the Defendant, the plaintiff Billie Plymale suffered a delay in the diagnosis and treatment of her illness causing Billie Plymale to suffer from an advanced cancer,” the complaint says.

As a result of Miller’s actions, Plymale says she has suffered mental anguish and will sustain future disfigurement, incur health care expenses, suffer humiliation and embarrassment and have a diminished life expectancy.

Miller is an Ohio resident practicing in Huntington, the complaint says.

On May 9, 2011, Plymale went to Miller’s office for a small ulceration of the plantar area of her left food, she says. She was prescribed a topical cream.

During regular visits, Miller described the lesion as non-healing because of the prominence of a bone, the complaint says. On March 1, 2012, the lesion was slightly worse, the complaint says.

By March 26, 2012, the lesion was showing poor signs of healing and there were a few small lesions in the arch, and she was referred to another physician, the complaint says.

On April 25, 2012, a biopsy revealed the lesion was an ulcerated invasive malignant melanoma, the complaint says. A biopsy of her lymph nodes on July 5 confirmed the diagnosis of metastatic melanoma, the complaint says.

Plymale is also seeking punitive damages. She is represented by Matthew C. Lindsay and Richard Lindsay of Tabor Lindsay & Associates. The two are also lawyers.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers.

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 3:13-cv-14953.