A Newfoundland woman was given the "runaround" when she tried to get results from a botched breast cancer test and later died because of the error, her sister told a public inquiry on Thursday.
Patricia Goobie told the inquiry, which is probing the handling of hundreds of misinterpreted test results by Newfoundland's Eastern Health, that her older sister Geraldine Avery only found out about the error after making repeated phone calls to the healthcare provider.
"She phoned me and said, 'I think I'm getting the runaround,"' said Goobie, who was diagnosed herself with breast cancer in 2001.
"To me, it's like a coverup and that's what she felt."
Goobie said the health board shouldn't have required prodding and should have made an appointment with Geraldine to inform her of its mistake.
When Avery was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, she was declared ineligible for hormone therapy such as Tamoxifen.
In April 2005, Avery went on Tamoxifen after her oncologists discovered that her test result was flawed. But she died in August 2006, her cancer having developed to the point that it was incurable.
Goobie said her sister was largely unaware that the test doctors used to decide on her treatment was misread.
"If she went on Tamoxifen back in 1999, when she was first diagnosed, she may be alive today," Goobie said.
"I can't say if cancer would've killed her or not. I don't know that. But at least she would've been given the chance."
Almost 400 people were given incorrect breast cancer test results and 108 of them have now died.
The inquiry is hoping to determine how the oversight occurred, why it went unreported for eight years and whether Eastern Health responded to the public appropriately. No conclusions will be made about civil or criminal responsibility in the report due July 30.
Goobie's revelations followed Wednesday's testimony by three women who were given incorrect information that seriously affected their treatment. Each spoke about how they were diagnosed with breast cancer but went years without knowing their result was flawed in ways that could have affected their treatment.
Speaking on CTV's Canada AM on Thursday, one of the women who testified alleged that her doctor falsified her records and became angry when she asked him for a copy of a test result.
"His reaction was defensive," said Beverly Green from St. John's. "He kind of said, 'There's no cure for this disease... He had results for me from another test... and he tossed them at me before leaving the room."
Green, 45, said her doctor had initially told her she had a 90 per cent chance of survival, but suddenly announced to her that had changed to 20 per cent. She said the misdiagnosis she received led her to choose the wrong treatment which likely affected the progression of her cancer. It has now spread to her liver.
Her records show her doctors knew of the mistake in 2005 but did not inform her until 2007.
With files from The Canadian Press
