Medical Lab Mistake: You Don’t Really Have Cancer

October 5, 2007

Long Island Classifieds - Free Classifieds - Maingreat free widgetsWidgetbox

Diagnosed with a highly aggressive form of breast cancer, 35-year-old Darrie Eason, a 35-year-old single mother from Long Beach, Long Island, N.Y., was told she had Breast Cancer, but Learned after operation her biopsy slide was mixed up.

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.” according to Darrie Eason

Darrie underwent a double mastectomy and after the surgery, she learned the unthinkable — she never had cancer at all. Two weeks later, her doctor called. He had discovered a horrible medical blunder.

A state report blames Eason’s mix-up on a former technician at CBLPath lab who mislabeled her biopsy results. The report said the technician “cut corners” and probably mislabled her results because he/she was handling more than one specimen at a time.

But in a statement, CBLPath Medical Lab said, “The New York State Department of Health found no systemic problems and no deficiencies were cited against the lab.”

Eason filed a lawsuit last month against the laboratory, seeking an undisclosed sum. Her attorney, Steven Pegalis, said they hope to learn whether or not the error was a system failure. Eason is not suing her doctors, because they were making diagnoses based on information from the lab.

Attorney Steven Pegalis of Lake Success says people must be able to trust a medical lab.

The doctor who signed off on Eason’s diagnosis no longer works for the company, but hospital directors claim her departure “has nothing to do with this case.” The technician responsible for the mixup also no longer works there.