While it is tragic if even a single person were to die from a cancer that could have been treated in time, it is criminal when unnecessary operations are performed purporting to cure cancer. Operations that are carried out either because of a genuine human error, to cut corners or even the manic idea of gaining practice at the expense of unsuspecting patients.
Recently a woman had one of her mammalian glands removed in south central Sweden and was told after surgery that she did not have breast cancer. This makes it that nation’s third such case during July.
The woman was a patient at the University Hospital in Linköping, where she learned only after the surgery that she did not have breast cancer. “It’s a very unfortunate error,” the university hospital’s chief medical officer, Hans Rutberg told local newspaper Norrköpings Tidningar.
According to guidelines of the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), a tissue sample should have been discussed by doctors during a special round, but this was not done. Recently, two similar cases occurred at Gävle Hospital in eastern Sweden when a 47-year-old woman had her breast removed after a contaminated test led doctors to believe she had cancer and a 34-year-old was misdiagnosed. Officials there blame the mistakes on a shortage of pathologists at the hospital. The National Health Board is notified of all events.
According to the Board’s 2009 statistics, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and constitutes 29 per cent of diagnosed cases in Sweden. The average annual rate of increase for breast cancer was 1.2 per cent over the past 20 years. Although science has made advances in breast cancer treatment, critics claim it currently does not adequately address the psychological effects of losing a breast nor the effects of a misdiagnosis of cancer followed by unnecessary treatment. According to recent studies, a diagnosis of breast cancer causes immense psychological stress.
Can one hope that we are not copying the mistakes being made in Sweden here, not just in the treatment of this ailment but also in other spheres?
C. Debono
GHAJNSIELEM