Australian man sues over surgical mistake

SYDNEY – An Australian man endured seven rounds of chemotherapy and had 80 percent of his stomach removed after being told he had cancer, only to later learn it was a misdiagnosis, reports said Sunday.

Graham Lord, 59, is suing health officials over the ordeal which has left him 20 kilograms lighter and unable to eat sitting down following a 2009 biopsy taken after a reflux complaint.

Lord was told that one of the areas biopsied had an aggressive cancer and he underwent seven rounds of chemotherapy before having most of his stomach removed in January 2010.

But post-surgery review of his tissues showed no sign of cancer and doctors at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital told him the initial biopsy diagnosis, made at a regional pathology laboratory, had been incorrect.

“To find out I didn’t have cancer, it was just devastating. I was numb, I just couldn’t believe it,” Lord told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

“I am still very angry.”

Lord’s lawyer Anna Walsh, said he has filed a Supreme Court case against the Central Coast Health District, where the incorrect diagnosis and chemotherapy treatment occurred.

“He would be seeking an apology from the hospital in terms of an admission of liability and compensation for his injuries,” Walsh told ABC Radio.

“There are nutritional issues and that leads to the need to have ongoing medical assistance as well as the need to have psychological counselling to help him get over this terrible event,” she added.

The health district is yet to file its defense in the case.