Mother dies after cancer screening machine blunder

The Daily Mail
29 November 2009

One woman has died and hundreds of other cancer patients put at risk after a crucial machine used to test for the best way to treat the killer disease developed a fault that was not repaired for at least a month.

The NHS hospital at the centre of the blunder failed to tell patients their results may have been wrong due to the broken equipment. It also did not report the incident to the medical authorities - an apparent breach of Department of Health rules designed to protect patients and alert doctors to problems.

Last month, mum Tracey Kindley, 43, died of breast cancer after learning her treatment had been based on inaccurate test results.

The machine - used to test hormone levels - gave a 'false negative reading' for oestrogen, meaning she was not prescribed certain life-saving drugs because it was thought they would have no effect on her cancer. Her doctors spotted the error only when she failed to respond to treatment and the cancer spread.

In the weeks before her death, Mrs Kindley began a legal action against the hospital. Her lawyer Hugh Johnson, of Stewarts Law, believes that had she been given the right treatment, she would have had a 70 per cent chance of making a full recovery.

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