Huge Blunders in NewFoundland, where else?

I was misdiagnosed for almost two years and I'm sure alot of us Canucks have heard about this but it is so upseting to read about and makes me wonder where else is this happening. Pearl

inquiry into...

Judicial inquiry into erroneous breast cancer tests begins in Newfoundland

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Sun Mar 16, 3:28 PM

By Tara Brautigam, The Canadian Press

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Nearly a decade after her doctor found a pea-sized lump on her left breast, Myrtle Lewis is still looking for answers from a Newfoundland health board accused of bungling her breast cancer test.

A judicial inquiry into how more than 300 patients also received erroneous test results begins Tuesday, an exercise Lewis hopes will provide some measure of resolution.

"I've got a lot of questions," said the 61-year-old home-care worker, who had both breasts removed and underwent five months of chemotherapy in 1999 after her cancer diagnosis.

"I battled through that and God only knows what I went through, I tell you."

In the spring of 2006, Lewis heard a report about questionable breast cancer tests while watching the evening news.

She later contacted the Eastern Health authority and was told that hers was among 2,000 tests dating back to May 1997 that were sent to Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital for retesting after oncologists raised questions about their validity.

She says Eastern Health officials told her in July 2006 that her breast cancer wasn't as advanced as she was led to believe when she had her double mastectomy, and that the chemotherapy she was given was unnecessary.

"When he told me that I wasn't going to die of breast cancer because I didn't have it, I only had precancer cells, that's when I broke down," Lewis said.

"It destroyed my life."

Lewis is one of more than 100 patients suing Eastern Health over the botched tests. Eastern Health did not return a message seeking comment.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government ordered the inquiry last May after it was revealed that 317 patients were disqualified from receiving an appropriate course of treatment for their breast cancer because of a faulty test, according to a sworn affidavit signed by an Eastern Health official.

The commission of inquiry will try to determine why there were so many inaccurate test results, why the errors weren't discovered until 2005, whether they could have been detected sooner and whether Eastern Health responded to patients and the public in an appropriate and timely manner.

Justice Margaret Cameron, who will preside over the inquiry, won't make any conclusions about civil or criminal responsibility.

For a year, Eastern Health has been under intense scrutiny over the quality of its service and its willingness to release information to the public.

Last May, former Eastern Health CEO George Tilley apologized for the "confusion" that arose when the board failed to fully disclose results of a review into the flawed tests. He resigned two months later.

Last month, the provincial government said 322 people who had their breast cancer tests redone have died - a death toll almost double what health officials previously thought. At the time, Ross Wiseman, the minister of health, said the findings were "extremely troubling."

It remains unclear how many of the 322 died of their cancer and whether a different treatment could have helped them.

Judy Janes, another breast cancer patient suing Eastern Health, said the extent of the errors has left her dumbfounded.

"I can see them missing a few, because we're all human and human errors are made," Janes said.

"But for them to miss so many? What was their way of testing?"

Janes, a 58-year-old hotel housekeeper, had her right breast removed in December 2001 and underwent chemotherapy for three months. She temporarily lost her hair and often felt sick as a result, she said.

In 2006, Eastern Health told her that she was misdiagnosed and should've been given a different treatment, she said.

"For the health-care system to let us down so bad, somebody's got to be held accountable and give us answers," Janes said from her home in Boswarlos in western Newfoundland.

Breast cancer patients affected by the error-prone tests and relatives of patients who have died are scheduled to be the first to testify.

Part of the inquiry will focus on the efficacy of Eastern Health's laboratory work on hormone receptor testing.

Hormone receptor testing can help determine the course of treatment for a breast cancer patient because, if patients are found to be estrogen-and/or progesterone-positive, they may respond to hormone therapy such as Tamoxifen.

If not, they may be given other treatment, such as chemotherapy or radiation.

The provincial government has requested the inquiry to deliver a final report by July 30.

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