#Woman Has #DoubleMastectomy, After Finds Out She Didn’t Have #Cancer

allaboutbreasthealth,com

It is hard to imagine what a Manitoba woman is feeling after finding out that her double mastectomy was based on an incorrect breast cancer diagnosis. The diagnosis, sadly, belonged to another woman, who in turn, received this woman’s and had her treatment delayed. The incident occurred between July 1 and Sept. 30, 2014, but officials have chosen to conceal where this tragic event occurred. According to Winnepeg Free Press.

“I cannot even begin to imagine the emotional distress of this woman and her family,” Progressive

Conservative health critic Myrna Driedger said in the legislature Thursday. 

Driedger said similar mistakes have occurred before with breast cancer patients. 

In 2010, she said, two breast cancer biopsies were switched in Winnipeg leading to one woman having a lumpectomy when she did not need it, while the other who did have cancer saw her treatment delayed by 10 weeks.

What’s worse is that 29 other similar events are listed to have happened, but it appears officials are trying to cover it up or “sweep it under the rug,” according to Driedger. There is an incident reporting system, but they justify concealing information based on the patient’s right to privacy. While there might be merit there, they are certainly leveraging that right to privacy as a way to assure they aren’t held accountable for these tragedies. They’ve responded by saying that mistakes “can and will happen.” 

There is no acceptable justification for these type of “mistakes.” Hopefully more women get second opinions and seek out Doctors that aren’t so knife happy. 29 incidents far supersedes any acceptable or justifiable tragedies.