Re: Life imitates Funky


"Ted Kerin" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5ml84qFe5hmvU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"J.D. Baldwin" <INVALID_SEE_SIG@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Of course this kind of thing happens all the time, but the timing on
this story is pretty good ...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299195,00.html

Lab Mistake Results in Double Mastectomy for Woman without
Breast Cancer

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) - A Long Beach, Long Island woman got the bad
news that she had breast cancer. She underwent a double
mastectomy and then was told the lab made a mistake and she
didn't have cancer.

Darrie Eason is a 35-year-old single mother who is now suing.

Her attorney says Eason was the victim of a mix-up at the the
CBLPath medical lab in Rye Brook. Eason has filed a lawsuit
against CBLPath in State Supreme Court in Mineola last month
seeking an undisclosed sum of money.

A state report blames the mix-up on a technician who admitted
cutting corners while labeling tissue specimens.

CBLPath chief executive William Curtis said he was familiar
with Eason's case but could not speak about any of his
company's patients because of federal privacy laws. He said
the doctor who signed off on Eason's diagnosis, no longer
works for the company.

The technician responsible for the mix-up, also is no longer
with the company.

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


I knew a woman (Steve Pegalis might even know about her, too), whose story
started the same -- doc says "you have cancer," then does a mastectomy.

Actually, it turned out that the initial lab report was considerably more
ambiguous -- and that the post-op biopsies, as here, definitely showed NO
cancer.

The difference in that case, was that the woman's doctor, instead of
relaying the "good news" (together with a sincere "oops"), continued to
tell the woman that she'd had cancer, AND subjected her to years of
post-"cancer" treatments and tests, all of which terrified the patient for
years, and all just to cover-up the unnecessary surgery. Now; that was a
LOT worse, in my opinion (not that I don't feel bad for the woman in
today's story, also).

The doctor in that case was a woman, too! What a lousy, horrible "person"
that doctor was.


Oh, and in case anybody wondered: The only reason all this came out, was
that eventually the woman got a new doctor, who obtained the old medical
chart (after being told the whole cancer story), then told the woman the
outrageous news of how she had been lied-to by her doctor -- that there
never was any cancer, and your doctor knew it, but continued to give you
chemo just to cover her own ass, etc.

Doctors! Great human beings, eh? No wonder everybody wants to pass immunity
statutes for doctors, just so those awful lawyers cannot pick on them for
little details like this. Vote Republican! (gag! choke!)



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