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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Clinic Cleared After Lab Misdiagnosed Cancer

(CN) - An Arkansas woman who received an incorrect cancer diagnosis cannot sue the medical clinic for malpractice, a state appeals court ruled.

Sheila Myers underwent a stomach biopsy at Cooper Clinic in 2004 and the material was sent to Pathology Services Laboratory.

At some point, Myers said, the specimen was contaminated with that of a man who had a form of cancer known as mantle-cell lymphoma.

Myers was told she had cancer and underwent several other procedures that later proved to be unnecessary, she alleged.

The trial court ruled in favor of the clinic on Myers' medical-malpractice clam, agreeing with the testimony in the clinic's affidavits that it was not the site of the contamination.

Myers and her husband, Trevor, appealed, arguing that they had a strong enough case to survive summary judgment.

The Arkansas Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's ruling.

"The court concluded that 'mere accusations without supporting proof' failed to satisfy the burden of meeting proof with proof under summary judgment standards," Judge David Glover wrote. "We agree. In short, the Myerses did not sufficiently rebut the evidence presented by Cooper Clinic to create a material question of fact that would defeat the motion for summary judgment."

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