Herlinda Garcia a woman from Texas wins $367,500 after breast cancer misdiagnosis

A healthy mother-of-four underwent eight grueling rounds of chemotherapy after a doctor misread test results and wrongly diagnosed her with terminal cancer.

Herlinda Garcia has been awarded $367,500 in compensation after she was told she had stage four breast cancer by Dr Ahmed Qadri in 2009.

Mrs Garcia, 54, lost her hair and fell into a deep depression as she went through treatment for the next seven months before another doctor realised the error when she sought treatment for anxiety.

The part-time civil process worker from Victoria, Texas, gave away most of her belongings, arranged for hospice carers to come to her home and drew up a 'bucket list' convinced that she was about to die.

She told KHou11: 'Everything was swollen, I lost my eyebrows, my eyelashes. I wanted to give up on everything.

'When you're told you have stage four terminal cancer that's it, I put my trust in the doctor.'

Mrs Garcia was misdiagnosed in 2009 when Dr Qadri removed a benign tumour from her left breast.

But it wasn't until she went to another doctor because she was suffering anxiety that she was offered a small amount of hope when a series of scans cast doubt on her original diagnosis.

Further tests at a specialist cancer centre in Houston, Texas, revealed that she never had cancer and a subsequent investigation showed that Dr Qadri had misread lab results.

Dr Qadri has since died.

Although Mrs Garcia said that she was relieved when she found out that she didn't have terminal cancer, she said that she was angry that such a mistake was made in the first place.

Her husband Adam Molina said that he wouldn't wish his wife's ordeal on anyone.

A Victoria County jury awarded Mrs Garcia damages following her ordeal which she says has changed her life.

Staff at the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, Texas, realised the misdiagnosis after Mrs Garcia had sought treatment for anxiety.
 
Mrs Garcia's husband Adam Molina, right, says that he wouldn't wish his wife's ordeal on anyone.

This article is courtesy of the Daily Mail.