Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis in Alberta

My name is Lita Bablitz and I am fundraising to cover the legal cost of filing to preserve my right to claim for damages and compel AHS/APL/Dynalife finally give me the answers and transparency that I deserve. I am unlikely to win much financially (breasts simply aren't valued) but the legal process could help force the changes to our Health system that I have already spent over 19 months advocating and fighting for.

In September 2021 I was BIOPSY diagnosed (after a distortion was discovered in a routine mammogram) with a large area of Intermediate grade DCIS in my right breast allegedly by 2 independent Dynalife Pathologists. It is important to note that Radial scars (mammogram distortions) are associated with malignancy only 10 to 40% depending on the criteria and as such require biopsy confirmation. I had no breast changes, no palpable lumps, and my follow up ultrasound was negative for anything suspicious. I was BIOPSY diagnosed and sent for a breast cancer treatment plan. In October 2021 I underwent an aggressive partial mastectomy, bilateral reconstruction, and removal of lymph nodes. I was to begin my Radiation Therapy sometime in November or December but the post-surgical pathology showed no sign of DCIS or any other malignancy. Biopsies and post-surgical tissues were sent to BC for an expert opinion which confirmed no malignancy or atypia was present in any of my biopsied or resected tissues. My surgeon and I were both shocked.

Since then I have been trying to get answers. Even when making FOIP requests the supposed 2nd read of my biopsy does not show up. I have never been shown one bit of evidence that it was done, and no proof it matched the 1st read as required (all new malignancy requires 2 pathologists to confirm). They insist all protocols were followed and there was no system error but won't share how they know. They insist the error was "understandable" because many benign breast cells can mimic DCIS and vice versa and that this is a "known challenge in breast pathology" but they defend their choice not to provide expert oversight before treatment because the redundancy of 2 general pathologists reads will catch errors and discrepancies (they claim 2 Dynalife pathologists made the exact same misdiagnosis independently through 2 separate blind reads of my biopsies). They insist that my resulting unnecessary cancer diagnosis and treatment was inconsequential because even if my biopsies had been read correctly as benign they would have wanted to do some sort of excision to be sure no cancer was lurking. My breasts are disfigured by scarring, I have "fatty tissue necrosis" in my right breast (because my body had trouble healing from the 10cmx7cmx4cm hunk of tissue removed from it), I have nerve damage, shoulder and arm pain/problems from the scar tissue on my chest, lost 2 sentinel lymph nodes, and was off work for 3 months recovering. I had to tell my family, my friends, and my workplace that I had cancer and was going to do whatever it took and then after weeks of fear and anxiety had to tell everyone it was a mistake, yet they have the nerve to say I don't get to be upset because they probably would have recommended 'some sort of surgery anyways'. They have made it very clear I am to get over this on my own, not ask hard questions, and have no right to ask that their claims be corroborated. They say they've never seen this before and that they're taking it very seriously but couldn't even be bothered to perform a Quality Assurance Review of my case.

They failed to provide adequate mental health support in the wake of my misdiagnosis, and they failed to provide timely access to physiotherapy for my shoulder and arm issues (despite telling them for months), but when I say they need to improve how they will handle misdiagnosed patients in the future they claim "lessons have been learned" yet have shown no concrete plan for change. Most importantly, when I ask how they plan to ensure this doesn't happen again they say changes are being made but it will take time; our system needs to be held accountable for its inability to act quickly when a risk to patient safety is exposed. They have spent 19 months ineffectually moving me through their silos. They say they've given me answers but they choose to ignore many of my questions and never show evidence/proof/documentation to support the answers they do give.

They say I have to seek many of the outstanding answers myself from Dynalife but Dynalife says they don't have to answer to me unless legally compelled. When I seek help from provincial advocates and watchdogs (government) they say they don't have jurisdiction over private providers like Dynalife which is incredibly worrisome. But AHS/APL/CPSA also won't clearly state that they decided to dismiss my concerns without being able to scrutinize my case properly because they didn't have the supposed second read either (or do and are withholding it despite FOIP/HIA/PIPA requests) so how could they say that protocols were followed and my concerns are unfounded? To summarise, no Quality Assurance Review was performed and they claim my case represents an unfortunate, but acceptable, human error but they didn't even assess if the protocols and procedures required to make a diagnosis of breast cancer were followed. Furthermore, my case was required to be reported as an adverse outcome but there is no record of that in AHS databases (FOIP request did not produce). It appears to me (and many others) they are making the dangerous assumption that what SHOULD have been done is what WAS done and that just isn't acceptable. Policy around procedures and protocols exists to ensure patient safety and if compliance can't be scrutinized and evaluated effectively in the wake of an error then what holds them accountable? If all these checks were done then why not show me and reassure me? Afterall if cancer can be found where it isn't then it can be missed where it is, they need to be committed to honestly examining errors so the system can do it's best in the fight against cancer.

So do I let my legal rights time out and give up any leverage I have to pursue these answers and hold the system responsible, for acknowledging the risks to patient safety my case has exposed, and for being accountable to make the needed changes to the system? It will cost $3000 to have a lawyer draft the documents and another few hundred to pay the filing fees and cover the Gofundme costs. I am not in a financial position to keep going alone but this will happen to others and for that reason I don't want this to be swept under the rug. If our system is worth fighting for (and I believe it is) then it's worth fixing. Change won't happen if they're not willing to practice the values they preach and I plan on reminding them of that.

Thank you for considering a contribution to my fundraising effort.

Lita Bablitz