Lab Mistake Causes Unnecessary Surgery

A woman, five months pregnant, went to her doctor’s office for a routine biopsy. Because of the negligence of the lab performing the biopsy, she was informed that she had a particularly insidious form of cancer, which was an immediate threat to her life and the life of her unborn child. As a result of this, our client underwent a minor exploratory surgery to assess the situation, without general anesthetic because of the pregnancy. One week after the surgery, and more than three weeks since the results were issued, the lab that had performed the biopsy contacted our client to inform her of the good news — she did not have cancer, and the biopsy showed nothing abnormal. This is a never event, an event in medical practice which is absolutely inexcusable and should never happen.