A Miami doctor decided a breast mass was benign. The woman died of breast cancer
A Gainesville radiologist working in Miami committed malpractice in handling the results of an ultrasound on a mass in a woman’s left breast, a Florida Department of Health administrative complaint said.
Dr. Albert Bleggi’s patient died nearly two years later, the complaint said. The cause of death: breast cancer.
An administrative complaint starts the discipline process. Online Florida Department of Health records say this is the first such complaint against Bleggi, who has been licensed in Florida since 2002. He’s been licensed in Ohio since 1984 and online records there show no previous disciplinary action.
State records say Bleggi’s Gainesville-based Urgent Radiology is still an active business, although the principal address is the residence Bleggi sold in April 2021. The person who answered a call to the Youngstown, Ohio radiology business to which Google links Bleggi’s name said he didn’t work at that location, and she didn’t have a number for his location.
An email sent to the address on his Florida Department of Health profile was not answered.
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What was seen and what was said
The complaint says on Feb. 22, 2019, Bleggi was working out of Sunset Radiology, which state records place at 7000 SW 97th Ave., in Kendall. A woman the complaint refers to as “O.B.” came in for a diagnostic mammogram.
When Bleggi saw an oval mass in O.B.’s left breast that hadn’t been there in her 2018 mammogram, the complaint said, he recommended an immediate ultrasound of the mass.
“The ultrasound exam results revealed that the mass in Patient O.B.’s left breast had features that were suspicious of cancer,” the complaint said. “Specifically, the margins of the mass were indistinct and angulated and the mass appeared to be enlarging or new.”
Still, “[Bleggi] described the mass ... as ‘avascular adenosis’ and concluded that the finding was benign.”
The American Cancer Society says, “Adenosis is a benign (non-cancerous) breast condition in which the lobules (milk-producing glands) are enlarged, and there are more glands than usual.”
O.B. died on Feb. 16, 2021, the complaint says. Bleggi failed to meet the “minimum standard of care” with O.B., the complaint says, by:
▪ not identifying the mass as “suspicious” in the radiological report;
▪ not recommending a biopsy;
▪ giving a diagnosis of avascular adenosis without a tissue sample or a pathologist evaluation.
The complaint says based on those inactions, Bleggi committed medical malpractice.
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