LELAND, N.C. (WECT) – A Leland woman who said Novant Health doctors missed cancer aggressively spreading through her body died earlier this week.
Brenda Booze died Tuesday afternoon, May 19, after a battle with stage four cancer. Her husband, Steve Conrad, believes she would still be alive if Novant Health doctors had caught the cancer earlier.
“She was a caring, giving, loving person,” Conrad said Friday. “And she did not have to die, if someone had just listened.”
A WECT Investigates report in December showed Booze battling the disease, saying she had come to terms with death. Her dying wish, Conrad said Friday, was to share her story so nobody else had to go through what she did.
Booze and Conrad criticized the care she received at Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center. Knowing something wasn’t right, but not getting any confirmation of cancer, Conrad said he repeatedly asked for a full body PET scan or MRI, but Novant Health doctors refused, believing Booze did not have cancer.
Results shared by Conrad showed Booze’s CEA levels, which can indicate cancer, quickly increased, going from 8.5 in March 2025 to 12.03 in July. Still, Conrad said, Novant doctors opted to test individual body parts rather than a full-body test, which he was willing to pay for.
She was eventually diagnosed by doctors at NHRMC in October after collapsing and having seizures while on vacation in Oak Island. Test results revealed cancer spreading from her lungs, to her brain and down her spine. Doctors sent her home on hospice care, believing she had just days — maybe weeks — to live.
“I just feel neglected. I feel so neglected and not looked after,” Booze said in October. “I’m prepared to die. I’ve made that peace with God. And I’ll try to live my life out the best I can, for however long that is.”
Booze lived six months longer than doctors initially expected. She received treatment at the Duke Cancer Center in Durham, which she described as a much better experience than at her local hospital in Wilmington.
Between January and May, Booze only left her home in Leland a few times, and was unable to walk. She was hospitalized twice for an adrenal crisis, a life-threatening emergency where the body breaks down. Ultimately, over the last week, she stopped eating and drinking, and no longer wanted to live in the condition she was in, her husband said. Her pain levels were at a 15 on a 1-10 scale, he said.
Novant Health declined to answer questions about Booze’s care ahead of WECT’s report in December, but said they were committed to keeping patients healthy and detecting issues early.
“A cancer diagnosis can be the first chapter in a grueling journey for patients and their loved ones, and we share our sincere concern for their experiences,” that statement read in part. “Cancer is an unforgiving disease that impacts lives in profound ways. It is a true adversary, and our dedicated professionals stand united with patients and families in the fight against cancer, committed to both diligent prevention and advancing treatment options.”
Over recent months, Conrad continued pushing Novant for answers.
“Her dying wish, the whole thing, was not money. It was for them to rethink their protocols, and stop putting profit over the health and care of their patients,” he said.
Novant’s Corporate Risk Management team sent Conrad a letter last month after he filed a complaint asking Novant to cancel the bills from Booze’s hospital stays at NHRMC in September and December. Novant’s letter said they didn’t find any information in their review of the complaint indicating that the evaluation or treatment provided to Booze was inappropriate. The billing adjustment request was denied.
To date, Conrad said he still hasn’t gotten any answers from Novant doctors or executives despite numerous attempts to have a conversation about his wife’s care.
A Novant Health spokesperson declined to offer further comment Friday out of respect for the family.
