Cassandra Barksdale says a tissue sample mix-up led doctors to diagnose aggressive uterine cancer and remove her uterus, cervix, fallopian tubes and ovaries; months later, DNA testing showed the cancerous tissue belonged to another patient. Barksdale, from the Atlanta area, has filed a lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente, alleging that a biopsy from another patient was mistakenly attributed to her.
She went to Kaiser Permanente's Southwood Medical Center in Jonesboro, Georgia, in early 2025 with abnormal bleeding and uterine fibroids; an endometrial biopsy on March 10 was read as aggressive high-grade endometrial cancer a week later, and although a CT scan showed no signs of cancer, she was referred to a specialist who recommended surgery. On May 15, 2025, aged 43, she had her uterus, cervix, both fallopian tubes and ovaries removed (with lymph nodes sampled); losing her ovaries threw her into premature surgical menopause.
Postoperative pathology, however, found no malignancy in the endometrial cavity—yet for months she still faced uncertainty and was even told she might need chemotherapy. "I even started making funeral plans," she said, describing the toll on her two sons. The turning point came in September 2025, when DNA testing showed the original cancerous biopsy tissue was not hers. How the mix-up occurred remains unclear; the lawsuit alleges diagnostic employees negligently handled the specimen before it went to an outside laboratory (the lab itself is not being sued).
The other patient's condition is unknown due to privacy laws. Kaiser Permanente said, "Ms. Barksdale should not have experienced this," citing trained staff and error-prevention processes and committing to a fair resolution. Her attorney Shannan Young: "There's no amount of money that's going to return back to her her healthy organs, or erase the experiences and the pain that she's had.
But our justice system recognizes that when somebody's negligence harms another person, accountability requires more than 'I'm sorry.'" Similar past cases in Israel: a 2014 mastectomy where the cancer cells proved to be another woman's, and a 2004 case where a woman had uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes removed over mutations repeat testing showed she did not carry. (Source: ynetnews.com)
