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TOKYO: A hospital in Japan said Tuesday that doctors mistakenly
removed a healthy woman’s left breast because of a mix-up in
samples from tests for breast cancer.
The woman, in her 40s, last year went for a
mammogram at a hospital in the western city of Okayama and was told
there was a possibility she had breast cancer.
Doctors removed her breast. But a detailed
examination of the tissue showed that she had a mastopathy, which
includes symptoms similar to those of cancer but does not require
surgery.
“We deeply regret that we caused the patient
irreparable harm. We will take measures so that this will never
happen again,” Tatsuya Itoshima, director of the Saiseikai General
Hospital, told a televised news conference.
An internal investigation found that the
woman’s identification number and tissue sample were mixed up with
those of a genuine cancer patient who had undergone testing the same
day as the healthy woman.
It was not immediately known whether the patient
has received compensation for the mishap. The genuine cancer patient
later also had her breast removed.
--AFP
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