Recent posts here have discussed several cases where medical mix-ups have resulted in unnecessary cancer removal surgeries. One case was that of Scott Aprile, a 28 year old personal trainer, who had his breast tissue and several lymph nodes removed after his lab results were switched with another patient's. Another case discussed a 32 year old woman from Melbourne, Australia, who underwent a radical hysterectomy after her biopsy sample had been contaminated with tissue from a patient who did have cancer. In each of these cases, both patients underwent unnecessary surgeries as well as the immeasurable pain and suffering that go along with a cancer diagnosis. But, they also had another thing in common - they both survived.
In early 2008, a similar lab mix-up resulted in the death of a young New York woman. She had been mistakenly diagnosed with breast cancer and decided to move ahead with treatment quickly since breast cancer ran in her family. She opted for a double mastectomy in conjunction with reconstructive surgery. The day after the surgery she died due to complications from the surgery. As with the two cases above, post surgical tests revealed there was no cancer in the first place. The hospital also made similar claims as those made in the other two cases that it had taken steps "to ensure that such an event will not occur in the future."
While it is unknown what specific steps have been taken or will be taken by these hospitals, it is known that these types of switching errors cannot be preventing through procedural improvements alone. (Read more on this here.) One way to truly prevent such errors is to utilize DNA matching technology to confirm the positive biopsy tissue belongs to the patient prior to beginning any treatment plans or surgery.
The know error® specimen security system, introduced in 2009 by Diagnostic ID, LLC, uncovers patient identification errors by matching tissue from a positive biopsy result to a reference sample taken from the patient via a simple cheek swab to confirm that the tissue belongs to the patient. By performing DNA matching prior to treatment, the know error® specimen security system assures that biopsy switching errors will be detected prior to any adverse patient outcomes.
For more information about the know error® specimen security system with unique patient code and DNA confirmation, please visit our web site at www.knowerror.com.
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