GAVLE, Sweden, July 19 (UPI) -- A Swedish woman who chose to have a breast removed when tests indicated she had cancer says she was told after the surgery she had never had cancer at all.
Louise, a 34-year old from Gavle in central Sweden, said she found a lump in her breast last autumn and went to a local hospital, The Local reported Tuesday.
"They said they found cancer cells and wanted to take new tests," she said.
After two tests came back positive for cell changes she made the difficult decision to have the breast removed.
"If I had cancer the breast had to go, there was no question about it. My mother died from cancer when I was little and it could be hereditary. I didn't want to leave my kids the way I was left," she said.
Doctors at the hospital removed her left breast and lymph nodes under her arm. But in a post-op check by a specialist she had not seen before, he told her she never had cancer and her breast had been removed for no medical reason.
An investigation found the mammography hadn't shown cancer and several pathologists at the hospital examining tissue samples had reached conflicting conclusions.
A pathologist studying the sample later confirmed the cell changes but suggested more tests should be conducted. By then it was too late.
Louise, who now wears a prosthetic breast, is waiting for reconstructive surgery, a process she said she had to initiate with the hospital herself.
"I have had no medical person to talk to during this process but have had to make sure things have got done myself," she said.
