Checking It Twice
Dec 2nd, 2005 at 6:11 am by Susie
I assume people know this, but maybe you don’t: the quality of lab work varies greatly from lab to lab, and even from technician to technician.
I once had an employee who came to me to inform me she was having a thyroid cancer removed and might lose her voice permanently. When I found out she’d been diagnosed at a crappy little local hospital, I made her go to a university hospital for a second opinion.
Turns out there was nothing wrong. But don’t think going to a big hospital will protect you, because they have problems, too:
PITTSBURGH — When the 47-year-old woman from Ohio got back results of her breast biopsy from Magee-Womens Hospital in 1999, she faced few medical options. The lab found invasive cancer requiring immediate surgery.
She promptly underwent a mastectomy, followed by two months of painful radiation treatments, unaware that there had been a mistake.
It turned out that the hospital lab had mistakenly switched biopsy specimens. She had no cancer. The positive reading belonged to a 64-year-old Pennsylvania woman. Both women have since accepted undisclosed damage settlements in cases sealed by the courts.
