Ana Jimenez-Salgado will receive more than $222,000, a settlement approved last week by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, after undergoing a double mastectomy at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center when she did not have breast cancer.

In 2007 Jimenez-Salgado underwent a biopsy to test for breast cancer, and two independent pathologists who were not affiliated with County-USC, concluded she had breast cancer.

After the patient’s surgery to remove the breasts and restructure her chest, County-USC pathologists studied the breast tissue and concluded that Jimenez-Salgado did not have breast cancer. They diagnosed the tissue with a harmless condition that had a similar appearance to cancerous cells, according to reports.
Jimenez-Salgado filed a malpractice lawsuit against the non-county pathologists who erred in their diagnosis and the county, whose doctors performed the surgery.

As a result of the misdiagnosis and subsequent surgery, the county will now require breast biopsy samples taken at other facilities to be reexamined at county hospitals. Additionally, the county has stopped sending patients to outside facilities for certain types of biopsies.

A recent review in Canada found two mistaken mastectomies at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital performed by the same doctor, one in 2001 and another eight years later, according to CBC News.

County-USC did not return calls for comment.

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