A “laterality error.” A patient was the victim of a medical error at the CHRU Bretonneau in Tours, as revealed on Friday, November 10, France 3 Centre-Val-de-Loire. In a press release, the Nuclear Safety Agency (ASN) explains that last spring a woman undergoing treatment for breast cancer received a series of rays in the wrong breast.
“A laterality error (right-left inversion) occurred during treatment preparation,” indicates the ASN.
Severity event 2 of 7
The error was only detected after 25 sessions of the 28 planned. The patient was treated with external breast radiation therapy, which involves using ionizing radiation generated by a particle accelerator to destroy residual cancer cells after surgery.
According to ASN, a doctor made a mistake by writing “right breast” instead of “left breast” in “the initial medical consultation report,” which then led to a medical error by the facility’s oncology and radiation therapy service. . .
“Taking into account the overdose of the poorly treated region and the potential risk of side effects,” the ASN classified this event as 2 on a scale ranging from 0 to 7, in increasing order of severity for the patient.
Already a precedent in the same hospital.
“This is not the first time that an incident of this type has occurred at the Bretonneau hospital,” ASN explains to France 3, mentioning an error related to the hearing of a patient treated at this establishment.
The latter also reacted by evoking multiple causes that led to these “serious” errors. “The center is analyzing the root causes of this event,” ASN writes.
“The patient was informed of the error and its possible consequences. A new treatment plan was proposed to treat the breast that should have been treated,” the agency continues. According to information from France Bleu, the patient chose to continue receiving treatment at the same hospital.
Source: BFM TV
