Cancer misdiagnoses - Incompetent and, also, inexcusable

Patient A, the unidentified 51-year-old Tipperary woman at the centre of last week’s cancer misdiagnosis controversy, has issued a statement covering multiple misdiagnoses of her breast cancer over a period of 18 months from September 2005 to March 2007.

In September 2005 she discovered a lump in her breast and was referred to a consultant at Barringtons Hospital, Limerick. She underwent a mammogram, ultrasound and lumpectomy.

On the basis of the mammogram and ultrasound, she was told it was a near certainty she was suffering from cancer at the time. The lump sample was sent for a histology examination to determine the kind of cancer.