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Tech Rachael Rapraeger faked over 1,200 mammogram results, let two die of cancer, gets 6 months

Judge: “You played Russian roulette with the lives of essentially a thousand women in this community."

By JC Sevcik
Woman undergoing a mammogram of the right breast. (National cancer institute/CC)
Woman undergoing a mammogram of the right breast. (National cancer institute/CC)

PERRY , Ga., April 17 (UPI) -- A former hospital technician pleaded guilty to manipulating the mammogram results of her patients.

“You played Russian roulette with the lives of essentially a thousand women in this community,” Judge Katherine Lumsden said to Rachael Rapraeger, 33, who told 1,289 patients at Perry Hospital their mammograms were negative when no doctor had ever actually reviewed them.

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Ten of those women were given false negative.

Two of them have since died of cancer.

Sharon Holmes breathed a sigh of relief when her results came back negative in December of 2009.

Two months later she was diagnosed with breast cancer that had already spread to her lymph nodes.

“You could have made a different decision, and my family and I would not be living this nightmare,” Holmes said in court, according to CNN.

“She just could not keep up with her workload and when faced with that, then she started doing what she did. Not to make any money but to try to make her hospital employer happy, not realizing what the consequences could be,” said Floyd Buford, Rapraeger’s attorney.

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Rapraeger, who pleaded guilty to 10 counts of reckless conduct and one felony count of computer forgery, was sentenced to 10 years of probation, a $12,500.00 fine, and six months in a detention center.

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