Cancer Free? Oops, Sorry About That
What could be more dreadful than facing a diagnosis of breast cancer, and then undergoing a radical mastectomy on the advice of the operating surgeon. An operating surgeon with a long practise as an experienced and reliable practitioner-surgeon in a highly respected hospital. It is the stuff of most women's nightmares. The threat that hangs over most women's consciousness, particularly as they grow older.
And after having undergone that experience, the raging internal fears, the loss of confidence in the future, the fears of lost feminine appeal, the thought ever-present that cancer may return and then the entire nightmare would be repeated. Well, perhaps there are worse things, in a sense; the experience of being informed that the surgical removal of a woman's breast was all in error, that cancer was not actually present, that all that dread and misery was an illusion.
Except that it wasn't an illusion. It occurred, because of an erroneous diagnosis, and it occurred because a surgeon, an experienced oncologist, failed to properly read the data she had been given, and proceeded with the operation, because, possibly, she was a very busy person and had little time to waste on mere details. Which appears to be precisely what occurred in a number of Dr. Barbara Heartwell's cases in misreading pathology reports.
Where this surgeon who has practised her profession as one of the most experienced surgeons at Windsor's Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital, in two acknowledge instances having removed the healthy breasts of two different women who were incorrectly diagnosed with having cancer. There are yet another five questionable cases pending further investigation in which Dr. Heartwell is involved.
And there may well be many more, since an investigation has revealed that a pathologist who has performed work in three hospitals in the Windsor area, including the one where Dr. Heartwell practised, is being investigated for errors in producing pathology reports. It would appear, further, that Dr. Heartwell was well aware that she misread pathology reports, and so informed her superiors on investigation.
These 'adverse medical events' have led to a more thorough investigation of both the unnamed pathologist and Dr. Heartwell, whose practising privileges have been withdrawn, and who has been reported to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. The entire pathology review will back up to 2003, and possibly involve 15,000 cases.
As though right on cue, and certainly long overdue, the Province of Ontario has unveiled a mandatory 32-point pre-surgical safety checklist through the Ontario Ministry of Health, designed to prevent errors in surgery, to be implemented on April Fool's Day.
And after having undergone that experience, the raging internal fears, the loss of confidence in the future, the fears of lost feminine appeal, the thought ever-present that cancer may return and then the entire nightmare would be repeated. Well, perhaps there are worse things, in a sense; the experience of being informed that the surgical removal of a woman's breast was all in error, that cancer was not actually present, that all that dread and misery was an illusion.
Except that it wasn't an illusion. It occurred, because of an erroneous diagnosis, and it occurred because a surgeon, an experienced oncologist, failed to properly read the data she had been given, and proceeded with the operation, because, possibly, she was a very busy person and had little time to waste on mere details. Which appears to be precisely what occurred in a number of Dr. Barbara Heartwell's cases in misreading pathology reports.
Where this surgeon who has practised her profession as one of the most experienced surgeons at Windsor's Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital, in two acknowledge instances having removed the healthy breasts of two different women who were incorrectly diagnosed with having cancer. There are yet another five questionable cases pending further investigation in which Dr. Heartwell is involved.
And there may well be many more, since an investigation has revealed that a pathologist who has performed work in three hospitals in the Windsor area, including the one where Dr. Heartwell practised, is being investigated for errors in producing pathology reports. It would appear, further, that Dr. Heartwell was well aware that she misread pathology reports, and so informed her superiors on investigation.
These 'adverse medical events' have led to a more thorough investigation of both the unnamed pathologist and Dr. Heartwell, whose practising privileges have been withdrawn, and who has been reported to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. The entire pathology review will back up to 2003, and possibly involve 15,000 cases.
As though right on cue, and certainly long overdue, the Province of Ontario has unveiled a mandatory 32-point pre-surgical safety checklist through the Ontario Ministry of Health, designed to prevent errors in surgery, to be implemented on April Fool's Day.
Labels: Health, Ontario, societal failures
posted by Pieface @ 7:12 PM
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