Failure to diagnose a brain tumor can have horrible consequences on the life of an individual. In a recent article in the Washington Post, Sandra G. Boodman writes about the dramatic story of Bebe Bahnsen, an outgoing and successful Washington newspaper reporter whose life was destroyed because doctors failed to diagnose a growing brain tumor that was pressing on her left frontal lobe, the portion of the brain responsible for speech, movement, emotional regulation and reasoning. Symptoms started with mild depression and as the tumor grew Bebe sustained a prolonged suicidal depression. Her social life and career were totally destroyed. For years she was hospitalized periodically, submitted to electroshock treatments, and prescribed numerous psychiatric drugs until finally a neurologist did the right thing. Dr Gawronski, now practicing in Baton Rouge, ordered an MRI and realized that a small benign brain tumor that had been previously diagnosed years before had reached the size of a lime and was the reason for her worsening mental illness.
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