October 4, 2007
Worst Mix-Up Ever
A Long Island woman is suing a medical lab in Rye Brook after her tissue sample was mislabeled, she mistakenly diagnosed with cancer and had a double mastectomy on her healthy breasts. Darrie Eason tells after she was told, post-mastectomy, that she never had cancer, Newsday, "I didn't know what to believe. They told me I had cancer and now they're telling me I didn't. I didn't know if the next day they were going to call me and say, 'Sorry, we made a mistake, you really do have cancer.'"
After being told she had invasive lobular carcinoma and that she would need a radical double mastectomy, Eason went to get a second opinion. The second doctor "relied on the same mislabeled sample." Eason told the Today, “I was told I had lobular breast cancer, which everybody said would come back," so she had the mastectomy and began reconstructive surgery. Then, the surgeon, who had Eason's removed tissue tested, told her that she really didn't have cancer. And when the mix-up was revealed, another woman, who had received a healthy diagnosis based the sample of Eason's tissue, had to be told she had the very serious form of breast cancer.
A state report says that a technician at CBLPath made the mistake probably because he/she was handling more than one specimen at a time. Eason is not suing her doctors, because they were making diagnoses based on information from the lab. CBLPath says that the mixup was "isolated" but her lawyer Steven Pegalis doubts that, "One of the things we may learn is ‘Was there a system failure, and if so, what can be done to improve the system?’ Personally, I doubt this is a one-time event by someone who was careless for one time in his or her life."
Eason said, "I'd like for no woman of any age to have to deal with the pain and the emotions that mistakes can cause. And I'd like somehow to change this -- mistakes like this can't happen."
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Bummer!
Wait, what about the other woman--the one who actually had cancer, but received a healthy diagnosis? Is she still alive? Fucking scary.
There are worst case scenarios - imagine if someone was wrongly diagnosed with penile or testicular cancer...
Does anyone know whether she was huge? Anyways, at least she'll be set for life and can get some double Ds...
I really think it's unfair that gothamist, or perhaps neighborhoodies, put that bar across my favorite virgin Jewish goddess's boobs in their "T" shirt add.
#3 that's not worse. What happened to this lady is criminal. Doctors and technicians cannot be allowed to make mistakes like this. They are professionals for God's sake. We have a health care crisis in this country and one reason is malpractice insurance is out of this world. If doctors could eliminate tragic mistakes like this, health insurance and doctor's fees wouldn't need to be this high. Never forget, doctor's don't pay for malpractice insurance, patients do.
I wish this lady the very best. I hope and pray that she can come out of this with a message. We should all be by her side in support.
wow. she deserves every penny she gets and more. how scary.
That is terrible for both those women.
Ok, but what is the point of getting a second opinion if the new doctor is not going to order new tests? Measure twice, cut once...
This scares the shit out of me. It could happen to anyone of us. It makes it hard to believe a first or second diagnosis. How should one proceed for the future? Scary.
Hope she is OK and gets lots of money to help put her life back together.
look, she gets a few million from the hospital and a boob job. I'd have no complaints. It wasn't like they cut off her arm.
"A Long Island woman is suing a medical lab in Rye Brook after her tissue sample was mislabeled, she mistakenly diagnosed with cancer and had a double mastectomy on her healthy breasts."
Jen strikes again!!
Reality Czech, you're an idiot.
robingee, your a faceless asshole.
Wow Reality Czech! I suspected you were crass, but this confirms it.
Whatever. You want to call people names because you don't agree with what they say, go ahead. Right back at you.
It's not like the woman needed her breasts, they probably would have caused her problems down the road anyway.
If I had to pouches of flab attached to my front end I wouldn't be so attached to them, especially if they could kill me.
How many people were going to see this woman naked anyway?
She'll look better with fake boobs and she can now have the luxury of never having to work again.
I bet she gets over this once she deposits the check.
Reality Czech, what about that useless pouch of flab attached to the top of your neck?