Hello all, I'm looking for some advice on how to handle a pretty terrible situation my wife and I have recently found ourselves in.

The Story:

About a year and half ago my wife noticed a bump on her outer thigh. We thought she had hit her leg on something, but it didn't go away and instead began to grow. We went in to see a general physician and she was diagnosed with a lipoma, or a benign tumor made of fat. We made an appointment and had it removed in the local office. This was a terrible experience as the operation took much longer than expected while my wife was awake, the doctor answered a phone call on his cell while still gloved, and she was not given any pain medicine for the following days despite the removal being more complicated than expected (instead of one single mass, it appeared as grapes on a vine). The physician said it was a lipoma, but sent a biopsy off to be sure. We were told that we would be contacted if anything was wrong, but it was very unlikely and no news was good news.

A few months later my wife notices a small bump remains at the operation site. We think it might be scar tissue, so we wait a while, but it becomes clear over the next few months that it's growing. We were told this was not uncommon for a lipoma. We finally decide to have it removed again, but we asked to be referred to a plastic surgeon in hopes that they would do a better job. The day before my wife's surgery, she is called by the plastic surgeon and informed that as part of preparing for the surgery the next day, she reviewed the biopsy results and they clearly state that it is not a lipoma, it is a malignant cancer called a sarcoma. The surgery was cancelled and our plastic surgeon made an appointment for us the following Tuesday (this happened on a Thursday) with a sarcoma specialist that she knew.

The weekend was long and very rough as we know enough about cancer to know that 1.5 years can make a huge difference in the outcome and the treatments that can be used. However, our oncologist turned out to be one of the most amazing people we have ever met. She completely shifted her schedule and had her staff assist us in getting an MRI and CT scan that day as well as a pre-op appointment that night. The next day my wife was in surgery to have the sarcoma removed. The scans indicated that there are no signs that the sarcoma metastasized yet and the tumor did not extend into the muscle. Based on this, surgery will likely be all that is needed to treat my wife and we can avoid chemo and radiation, unless the sarcoma reappears or it did go metastatic and hasn't been noticed yet. To ensure that the entire tumor was removed, a radical excision was done that took a large portion of my wife's thigh and then pulled the remaining parts together to fill in. While the surgical team did an absolutely amazing job and it looks better than I could have hoped, it left a scar a little larger than 4 inches and caused a noticeable shape change in my wife's leg that has made her very unhappy. She doesn't want her leg to be seen in public.

Now we're trying to decide if we should contact a legal firm to address why this wasn't brought to our attention when the result was initially received. We were fortunate that the tumor was slow growing and does not appear to have spread, but we're told that we still have about a 10% chance of it returning. Could anyone tell us what to expect with a situation like this or provide any tips for handling it best? Our primary focus is to ensure that my wife has the best health care going forward. In light of the situation, our oncologist went above and beyond to treat my wife and I'm worried that this type of care might stop if we press this legally or if we opt not to and we hit some sort of statute of limitations. I don't think this is likely as our oncologist seems to be a truly amazing person and has made some comments to us that suggest that she really is acting in our best interests only. My wife will require MRIs and CT scans every 3 months for a year and every 6 months or so for the next 4 years after. We're also concerned that if we press forward with a law firm and then the sarcoma returns, we might have limited our options. Also, we want to make sure that this won't put our oncologist or plastic surgeon into any difficult situations. They had nothing to do with the original biopsy and I can't imagine they would be affected, but I'm not familiar with situations like this. My current plan is to contact a local firm in the next few days for consultation to see what they suggest, but I am a little concerned about a legal firm pursuing this purely financially as would be in their best interest and limiting the future health care options for my wife. Any advice on this would be very appreciated and I can answer any more questions in the comments.