Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/191652
News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2013 Cancer misdiagnosis a warning for patients Mourned TV presenter Nirvana Azzopardi had filed court protest against obstetric consultant who initially ignored what turned out to be most aggressive of breast cancer types AN obstetric consultant whom TV presenter Nirvana Ciavola Azzopardi had accused of misdiagnosing her cancer, was not found guilty of the "prolonged" neglect of her duties, the Medical Council had ruled. Azzopardi died after a two-year battle with cancer at the age of 40 on Wednesday. She had claimed her doctor had misdiagnosed the cancer that she would later succumb to. But the Medical Council, the body that regulates doctors in Malta, had found that the doctor had acted "unethically and unprofessionally" in what they said was a breach of their medical practitioners' code of ethics. Having graced the Maltese television screen since the 1990s, news that Azzopardi was suing her doctor over the alleged misdiagnosis had shocked people who were unaware of the TV presenter's struggle with a rare type of cancer. Azzopardi had stated in a judicial protest in the courts that the obstetrician had given her an incorrect opinion by telling her that changes in the size of her breast were "100% nothing", and that changes were "normal" and "acceptable". Azzopardi kept noticing variations in her breast that led her to a second consultation with the doctor in April 2011. It was here that the doctor suggested a mammogram to inspect the variations in the breast, something which led the TV presenter to believe that the previous examination had been totally incorrect. Azzopardi was hit by terrible news when she later went to the Mater Dei Hospital's breast clinic, to find out that she had the most serious of cancers, a triple negative breast cancer. By the time she filed a judicial protest against the doctor, Azzopardi was suffering from stage 4 cancer, which had spread to her lymph nodes and her liver. Azzopardi passed away in her sleep on Wednesday, 9 October, leaving to mourn her husband Marius Ciavola and her two sons. St Julian's parish priest Claude Portelli described her courage as she faced her illness as an example for everyone. "What impressed me the most was the fact that she wanted to prepare herself for the Nirvana Azzopardi passed away on Wednesday final voyage. And she did this in all the ways possible. She was so at peace with what was going to happen that she even planned her own funeral to the last detail, including the songs that would be sung." Azzopardi had turned to religion for solace in her final years, according to Fr Portelli, who said the TV presenter would recite the rosary every day with her husband and sons. "She had a simple message of faith: that there was a better life after this one." Towards the end of her funeral mass, held on Friday, Fr Portelli read out a letter Nirvana had written for the occasion, in which she told her loved ones not wait for people to fall sick before telling them they loved them.