Woman gets mastectomy after cancer misdiagnosis

A Sejong woman was recently misdiagnosed with breast cancer based on the test results from another person. This led to the hospital removing her left breast, which only had benign tumor tissue.

Local news outlets on Tuesday reported the case of a 32-year-old woman who received the diagnosis from a Sejong-based medical institute in September last year. A subsequent test at a cancer center in Seoul did not find cancer cells, but she went ahead with the surgery anyway as a precaution.

However, cancer tissue was not found in the removed breast, and it was later found that the initial test had examined a specimen from another person's body. The blunder was reportedly made by GC Labs, a clinical laboratory that was commissioned by the Sejong hospital.

The victim said the unnecessary surgery had inflicted substantial damage to her personal life, forcing her to postpone plans to get pregnant. She said her self-esteem was damaged by the surgery scars, and expressed concerns about breastfeeding her future child.

The Sejong hospital claimed no responsibility, and the lab said the mistake was caused by its staff mislabeling the samples. In a letter sent to the victim in February, it said, "It appears that the tumor removal had been conducted under medically-based judgment, since it is beneficial to remove the tumor even if it is benign."

The woman said she is planning to seek compensation for the damages caused by the surgery.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare, supervising all medical institutions, said it was a "grave issue" and is reviewing whether to launch an investigation into the institution that conducted the test.