Teaching Hospital Cuts Off Lady’s Breast, Discovers She Has No Cancer

Serah Yugh had undergone eight sessions of chemotherapy, 25 rounds of radiotherapy and a single mastectomy on her left breast before realizing one shocking fact: she did not have breast cancer as misdiagnosed by the [...]

Teaching Hospital Cuts Off Lady’s Breast, Discovers She Has No Cancer

Serah Yugh had undergone eight sessions of chemotherapy, 25 rounds of radiotherapy and a single mastectomy on her left breast before realizing one shocking fact: she did not have breast cancer as misdiagnosed by the doctor!

She wore a scarf, a smile, and brought a sheaf of papers out of her bag. Occasionally, her scarf fell off to show her plaited hair. But this is not how she was three years ago when her hair started falling off due to chemotherapy. Her doctor had warned her of what would happen to her hair, but the day she was taking a shower and applied soap to her head, she screamed as chunks of hair fell off her head. This was in 2017 after she underwent a mastectomy on her left breast. And this was also the beginning of a journey that would forever alter her life.

When Serah started losing weight while undergoing her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) assignment in Ekiti State, she went to the hospital seeking a solution but found none. Tests were done but results didn’t point to anything.

While self-examining her breasts in 2017, she felt a tiny lump on her left breast. This bothered her so much that she first went to the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi before going to the Benue State University Teaching Hospital at her sister’s suggestion. What was supposed to be a simple test developed into a three-year-long back and forth with the hospital.

It was such a tiny lump that — when a biopsy was performed at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) — was described as “a single very tiny piece of greyish biopsy tissue that may be inadequate for the process.” At the hospital, Serah told them she wanted to know the type of lump she had.

MISDIAGNOSIS, THEN INDUSTRIAL ACTION

The histopathology diagnosis of the first test was Atypical Epithelial Hyperplasia (an abnormal growth pattern that is associated with a small increase in breast cancer risk), which has been shown to be pre-cancerous but is not cancer. The second diagnosis was an Invasive Ductal Carcinoma which, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, represents 80 percent of all breast cancer diagnoses.

Just as Serah was awaiting the result of the third test, the hospital went on an industrial strike in September 2017 and by the time the strike was called off in January 2018, she had undergone five rounds of chemotherapy. Her doctor, Dr Stephen Atokolo, had urged her to do a mastectomy to quickly stop the spread of what could be cancer. She did the surgery. When the third test result was out, the histopathology diagnosis was Fibroadenoma. Serah Yugh did not have cancer.

This misdiagnosis was however not what bothered her. Serah needed her immunohistochemistry test. The test was to be given before radiotherapy since it determined the next steps of treatment. This however didn’t happen and she started taking Tamoxifen.

Since 2017, she had been coming to BSUTH from Kaduna and Abuja, asking for her immunohistochemistry test from the Dean of the College of Health Sciences, Dr Joseph Ngbea. The test result was to enable the doctor at the National Hospital to decide on the treatment to give her.

Dr Ngbea told FIJ that he was not in charge of Serah’s case. And while Serah had paid for the test to his secretary at his request, each time she went, she was told the results were coming. The last time she waited to see him at his office, she recalls, he shouted at her.

At a meeting with Dr Raymond Vhriterhire, the former Head of Department of Histopathology, and Dr Joseph Ngbea — who was newly appointed as Commissioner for Health, Benue State, Serah was offered a breast reconstruction and a job. She rejected both.

She was more interested in knowing the exact life-redefining error made by the doctors. She also wanted to know why they had not yet given her the immunohistochemistry test. She had asked them how she would cope with the side effects of the chemotherapy, radiotherapy and drugs she was taking. The offer came across to her as a ploy to silence her from asking questions — questions she had been asking since September 2017 when a mastectomy was performed on her.

A doctor who asked not to be named explained to FIJ that in matters of misdiagnosis as applicable to doctors, negligence is determined by a couple of factors. A doctor has a duty to a patient. Secondly, there is a dereliction (when a doctor deliberately fails to do what he or she is supposed to do). Thirdly, there is damage due to the dereliction and that damage bears a direct link between the doctor’s negligence and the result (the damage).

After her chemotherapy, Serah returned to Kaduna. It is here that she found Kunak and Project PINK BLUE, two NGOs that gave her support. Project PINK BLUE, an organization engaged in cancer awareness, paid for her radiotherapy. But prior to then, Serah had to get an immunohistochemistry test that was supposed to further pin down the diagnosis of cancer.

According to an oncologist, Dr Chinedu Arua, histology and immunohistochemistry tests are prerequisites for patients seeking breast cancer treatment.

“Those things have an implication in terms of the drugs we are going to use to treat the patient, and the outcome of the disease,” he said.

“It also has a medical implication. Without the tests, a doctor won’t agree to treat the patient. What they’ll do is to take a second sample from that tissue and get histology for that. This would help the doctor give the appropriate drugs to the patient and give a focal of what would be the likely outcome of the disease. Is the patient dealing with a disease that is curable or one that they’ll just be managing? The immunohistochemistry test is very important! Without it, the patient might be given the wrong drug for a wrong disease.”

It was when Serah went to Abuja that her oncologist pointed out the discrepancies in the results she presented. She didn’t know the test results were different and therefore signified something deeper she might have been missing.

“All my plan was to finish chemotherapy and do radiotherapy so I could play my part and rest,” she told FIJ.