An alleged mixup in the Soroka Medical Center may have resulted in a woman undergoing an unnecessary mastectomy, Israel Hayom has learned.
The surgery, which took place in June 2022, was carried out on the woman's left breast based on a pathological examination that was conducted on another patient.
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After the medical staff realized that an error had been made, they told the woman who underwent the mistaken operation that this was the first time this happened in the hospital. But it turned out that a similar incident may have happened in 2008, Israel Hayom has learned.
Israel Hayom can reveal that the Health Ministry has been investigating the matter after it received a complaint from the woman's lawyer and following the hospital's own report. The lawyer asked that a commission of inquiry be formed in order to "prevent future such incidents and to determine how such a grave error was made."
The woman, Meirav Baר-Hen, has recently filed a malpractice suit against the HMO running the hospital, asking for damages. On April 11, 2022, Bat Hen, a mother of three, underwent mammography screening along with a breast ultrasound that indicated a possible cancerous tissue.
Following a biopsy three days later at the hospital, six samples were taken from her breast and on the 26th she was told that based on the pathological results from those samples, she has a malignant form of cancer and needs an urgent surgical intervention that would result in an almost full mastectomy in her left breast.
After two weeks, when the tissue was analyzed from what has been removed, the surgeon called her and allegedly said that there is "incongruity between the first biopsy showing malignant cancer and the biopsy from the tissue that has been removed, which appears to have no cancerous cells." The doctor allegedly went on to say that "you have cancer, so in any case you should continue with the radiation."
After she became suspicious that something wasn't right, Bar-Hen approached the physician in lab, who dismissed her concerns. Even after the physician called the surgeon while she was presented and he reiterated that there was no mixup. But she insisted that the analysis between the two biopsies be checked, and was ultimately proved right. Her medical file says that "during the operation, there was no indication of a cancerous tumor and that the tissue where a tumor was found did not belong to this patient. Therefore this patient only had benign tissue his her breast; the diagnosis given to her was a mistake and she was told this."
Israel Hayom asked Soroka Medical Center and the HMO Clalit Health Services for a response on the two alleged incidents of unnecessary operations, and whether lessons have been drawn. However, both issued only the following statement: "The lawsuit has been received, we are currently studying it and we will respond as is acceptable in legal proceedings; the incident was reported to the Ministry of Health."
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