A St. Paul, Minnesota hospital issued an apology Monday for accidentally amputating a healthy woman's breasts in June 2002. Linda McDougal, 46, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer after her physician at United Hospital ordered a biopsy when a suspicious spot appeared on her mammogram.
Unknown to McDougal and her doctor, United's laboratory switched her tissue with a sample from another woman who actually had cancer. The error was not discovered until after the amputation when McDougal's physician found no malignancy in the removed breast tissue. McDougal is still deciding whether to sue the hospital for malpractice.