A Georgia woman has filed a Georgia medical malpractice lawsuit alleging that her biopsy sample was mislabeled, which led to the wrongful diagnosis of cancer and months of unnecessary cancer treatment. The then 43-year-old woman alleges that she had a full hysterectomy on May 15, 2025 and was advised that she would receive instructions about chemotherapy.
The woman alleges that she went to Kaiser Permanente Southwood Medical Center in Jonesboro, Georgia in early 2025 for treatment of her heavy menstrual bleeding and fibroids. Part of her treatment plan was a biopsy she had on March 10, 2025. She was advised on March 17, 2025 that the biopsy showed an aggressive form of endometrial uterine cancer, which caused her to experience deep depression, including making funeral arrangements and instructing her sons regarding her end of life desires.
According to the woman’s Georgia medical malpractice lawsuit that was filed on August 11, 2026, she was not provided an explanation about how the mislabeling occurred, or what happened to the woman whose biopsy was reported as her’s. It was not until DNA testing of the biopsy tissue was performed that the woman was told that she did not have cancer.
Kaiser Permanente reportedly issued a statement: “Ms. Barksdale should not have experienced this. We have highly trained staff and very thorough processes in place to prevent errors like this from taking place. After this occurred last year, we took immediate steps to ensure it could not happen again. We realize the impact of this incident and are committed to working with Ms. Barksdale and her counsel to resolve this in the most fair and accountable way we can.”
A 2011 study designed to quantify the rates of mislabeled cases, specimens, blocks, and slides and to identify the sources of error and the ways in which errors are detected reported: “Of the 136 institutions providing information on a total of 1811 mislabeling occurrences, the overall mislabeling rates per 1000 were 1.1 cases, 1.0 specimen, 1.7 blocks, and 1.1 slides. Of all mislabeling events, 27.1% were cases, 19.8% specimens, 25.5% blocks, and 27.7% slides. The work locations at which the errors occurred were 20.9% before accessioning, 12.4% at accessioning, 21.7% at block labeling, 10.2% during gross pathology, and 30.4% at tissue cutting. Errors were typically detected in the first or second steps immediately following the error. Lower mislabeled slide rates were associated with continuous individual case accessioning and use of formal checks at accessioning. Routinely including a statement in the gross description that the specimen is labeled with the patient’s name and is properly identified was also associated with lower rates of specimen mislabeling. The errors were corrected before reports were issued 96.7% of the time; for 3.2% of errors, a corrected report was issued. In 1.3% of error occurrences, participants gauged that patient care was affected.”
The GAO reported in 2020: “Healthcare providers use biopsies—removing and examining cells or tissue—to diagnose diseases like cancer. Labs that examine biopsies must ensure that specimens aren’t misidentified or contaminated so patients can be properly diagnosed and treated. Stakeholders estimate that these errors are infrequent. In our review of studies, error rate estimates were generally around 1%, with the highest estimate at 2.3%. These errors could result, for example, from a lab tech mixing up specimens when manually cataloging them.”
If you or a loved one suffered harm (or worse) from cancer malpractice in Georgia or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a Georgia medical malpractice attorney, or a malpractice attorney in your state, who may investigate your cancer malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a cancer medical malpractice claim, if appropriate.
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