Health authorities reportedly decided to suspend the state approval for medical activities of GC Labs for one month, after the institute's blunder led to a cancer misdiagnosis for a woman whose left breast was removed as a result.
Local broadcaster MBN News reported that the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Friday decided to cancel the government authorization for the clinical laboratory that conducts medical analyses commissioned by local hospitals. The endorsement allows the institute to be reimbursed from state funds, which means the revocation of such rights would likely suspend most of its activities.
This action by the ministry follows a mistake GC Labs made last year, in which tissue samples of two women were switched due to mislabeling. This led to a female patient being misdiagnosed with breast cancer in September last year, and receiving a mastectomy.
The left breast removed from the 32-year-old woman was found to have only benign tumor tissues, and she said the surgery inflicted substantial damage on her personal life such as delaying her plans for pregnancy. She said last month that she is seeking compensation for the damages caused by the surgery along with criminal charges against GC Labs and the Sejong hospital that commissioned the examination of her tissues.
Data from the Korea Consumer Agency showed that there were 131 cases of misdiagnosis related to cancer reported to the KCA from 2017 to June of 2021, 17 of which involved diagnosis of cancer where none existed. The rest involved mistaking cancer for another condition.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
