Monday, March 22, 2010

How would you feel if you had gotten your breasts removed by mistake???

Laurie Johnston from Windsor Ontario, had to endured exactly that.  She was told by Dr. Heartwell that she had breast cancer and needed to do a mastectomy (removal of breast tissues).  Laurie agreed and they proceeded to go with the procedure...only to find out after the procedure was already done, that Laurie NEVER had breast cancer!  The doctor just misread the chart!

I don't know about you, and I'm fortunate that I have not had to go through that, but I am pretty damn sure that I would be a complete wreck if I was told (knock on wood) that I had breast cancer...and then only to endure the procedure and be told that I never had breast cancer? I think I would kill that doctor...

BUT...it gets worst...They found out...that she had made this SAME EXACT MISTAKE BEFORE!  So now two women suffered because of her!  She made this mistake before and the hospital did Nothing???  She voluntarily quit operating after the incident with Laurie, BUT wanted her job back basically just three weeks later....Get this:

The Hospital Gave Her Back Her Privileges!!!

Seriously?!? Are you kidding me right now??? The hospital said that she can operate as long as her cases are reviewed by another surgeon for three months... and the only thing they really said was that they were profoundly sorry that this happened...

If I was Laurie, I would go burn down the hospital!  A "Sorry" just don't cut it... 


2 comments:

EmcogNEATO! said...

That's insane! As patients, I wonder what kind of records we can access about our doctors' mistakes.

Twice.

That's just unthinkable.

Dalia (Generation X Mom) said...

It is very scary that things like this actually happen more than we realize. I have seen shows on this where they make mistakes very often. Wrong surgeries, wrong diagnoses, wrong patients. We all have to be so aware and know what is going on.