A Florida hospital's mix-up caused an elderly woman to be misdiagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and lose half of her rectum, the Orlando Sentinel reported. On Tuesday, the Winter Park woman filed a lawsuit asking a judge to order the hospital to surrender records documenting the lab mix-up.
For months, the 68-year-old woman from Orlando was allegedly led to believe that she was dying after doctors told her that she was suffering from rectal cancer. The diagnosis was made in December after taking tissue samples from the woman during a colonoscopy - a procedure where a camera is used to investigate the bowel, UK MailOnline reported.
But the woman, who asked not to be named and is identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, claims she was misdiagnosed after her test results were mixed up with those of a man with rectal cancer, either at Florida Hospital Winter Park, where she had gone for a routine colon exam, or in a laboratory at Florida Hospital's main facility on Rollins Street in Orlando.
"I really thought I was dying for many months," she said in a phone interview with the Orlando Sentinel, adding that the mix-up occurred after someone mislabeled her tissue sample from the routine colonoscopy.
The diagnosis came as a shock because she had been in good health before, exercising regularly and taking no medication, she said. "I literally had my daughter drive down for Minnesota for Christmas because we all thought this was probably the last Christmas we would have together," she told the Orlando Sentinel.
However, she sensed a problem with the diagnosis before the surgery. Although a series of pre-operative biopsies trying to pinpoint the cancer's location kept coming back negative, she asked the hospital to double check the lab work. But personnel claimed it did, and that she did, in fact, have cancer, she said.
Since her fiancé insisted, she had the surgery done in January, where doctors removed part of her rectum.
Later in May, she was contacted by her doctor, who said that lab work on the removed tissue from her operation showed it to be cancer-free, and that DNA testing confirmed there never had been any cancer, according to the suit.
"I was euphoric. I felt like a big, heavy shroud had been taken away from me," she said. "I've still got the phone message. ... I've put the phone away so I won't lose it."
At an Aug. 4 meeting, three hospital managers apologized to the woman and her lawyer, Eric Faddis, she said. "They were all very sorry. They said it over and over and over," the woman said.
But since the hospital failed to provide detailed records, documenting the mix-up and the steps it took in determining that she was cancer-free, it has violated several federal and state laws, according to the suit, which was filed in state circuit court in Orlando.
Now, "the suit asks that a judge order the hospital to release all of the woman's medical records documenting the mix-up. It also asks the judge to appoint a special master to handle the records," according to the Orlando Sentinel. "The woman needs them to determine whether to file a medical-negligence claim."
Meanwhile, a hospital spokeswoman, Samantha Kearns Olenick, said Florida Hospital does not comment on pending litigation.
