Cancer Commentary - Caring About Cancer

Incorrect Cancer Diagnosis: What will you do?

by Gloria Gamat on August 7th, 2007

If something like this happens to you (Source: Belfast Telegraph)…

A Galway hospital has apologised to a woman with breast cancer after two sets of test results incorrectly gave her the all-clear.

Reports this morning say the woman, who lives in the midwest area, had her treatment delayed by eighteen months as a result of the mistake, which occurred in pathology services at University College Hospital in Galway.

An independent review is to be carried out into the incident by the Health Information and Quality Authority.

The HSE said it’s also conducting an internal check of test results issued by the lab during the periods concerned.

…what will you do? Perhaps sue or ask for further treatments and services to be free? But will all those really “pay” all the emotional stress brought by the whole ordeal to the patients and their family?

Reading the above story reminded me of a classmate/friend back in college. He was complaining of severe headaches (migraines perhaps) and decided to go to a refutable hospital for a decent diagnosis. After a brain scan (probably CT scan or MRI, i cannot really remember), the doctor diagnosed him with a brain tumor that is operable.

To make the long story short, his family decided to go ahead with the brain surgery. And so he was scheduled for that and meanwhile was given something for the pain. I do not really know what but the drug was injectable.

And so he was sent home with the prescription. At one time, that he injected himself, he passed out and woke up without knowing what happened and couldn’t even remember who he was and the people around him. Yes, he got temporary amnesia of some sorts.

One day he came to class with a chaperone because he didn’t even know where to go and what he was doing. In his family’s effort (with his doctors’ advice) for him to live a “normal” life despite the condition, he had to go through his routine like usual, like going to class. To help too with his memory coming back. His family explained the situation to our teacher and our teacher to us, the students.

He went to class for several weeks without recognizing us and wondering what he was doing there at all. It went on for several more weeks until one time that we was in the school’s cafeteria when everything went rushing back to him. He couldn’t even remember where he was because all he could remember was passing out after the injection.

Going back to the hospital and his doctors, they had to do one more brain scan before the surgery. Thank God he was scanned one more time because it turned out that he didn’t have a tumor after all and that the first scan result was apparently exchanged for someone else’s. Imagine?!

My friend was just too relieved to find out that he didn’t have brain tumor after all. His mother was in rage and wanted to sue the doctors and the hospital. But his father was concerned that the other guy ( to whom the first brain scan result belong to) might be too sick by this time - if not already dead.

That day he was sent home from the hospital, he came straight to the school to tell us about the whole story. I remember we were all jumping in glee like we all won a second life.

The lesson: hospitals, doctors, lab technicians should be extra-careful when performing these diagnostic tests for cancer and various serious conditions, because whatever the result maybe, it will play a huge role in the concerned persons’ lives. So the results you will give will better be the correct one and not be the consequence of a human error.

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POSTED IN: ~ Cancer Stories ~, ~ Diagnosing cancer ~