"Early this year, a Leamington woman, Laurie Johnston, went public with her story after Heartwell unnecessarily removed her breast and lymph nodes last fall. That's when Laporte went public.
"I only came forward because of Laurie, and to try and make some changes," she said. "This government investigation is flawed. (Heartwell) is known to make mistakes. The hospital never even knew about it until we came forward."
The report -- which looked into surgical errors and pathology practices at three Windsor- Essex hospitals -- recommends the hospital lift all restrictions on Heartwell's practices.
"I just can't understand how they can say that she doesn't need any restrictions," said Laporte. "You have to be accountable for your mistakes... they're just basically saying, well it's that one per cent, so, we'll just go ahead and let her do surgeries. I just think that's totally wrong.""
REPORTER TARA JEFFREY: THE OBSERVER; Wikipedia informs us that, "The Observer has been serving Sarnia-Lambton since 1853 and publishes six times per week, Monday through Saturday. This award-winning[citation needed] broadsheet is a member of the Sun Media family of newspapers."
PHOTO: DR. BARBARA HEARTWELL;
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BACKGROUND: During the past two years, this Blog has reported on a crisis in Canadian pathology indicated by serious breakdowns in hospitals in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Ontario and elsewhere in the country. The purpose, beyond seeking review and reform, is to show that the wide-ranging problems with pathology in Canada were not limited to the criminal sector - and that serious errors, sometimes lethal, were being made in reading test results on living patients. In short, that there was a crisis in Canadian pathology.
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"A Sarnia woman whose botched mastectomy made headlines earlier this year is outraged that the doctor who performed her surgery has been cleared," the Observer story by reporter Tara Jeffrey, published earlier today, begins under the heading, "Doctor cleared, Sarnian outraged."
""It's frustrating, it's disheartening, and I just feel like I've been left out of the system here," said Janice Laporte, who had her breast removed in 2001, only to find out days later she never had cancer," the story continues.
""I'm very disappointed; this is certainly not the outcome I thought it was going to be."
Dr. Barbara Heartwell, a surgeon at Windsor's Hotel-Dieu Grace hospital, was cleared this week, following the release of report by provincial investigators that concluded she "generally performed safe surgery and provided safe care" despite a pair of mistaken mastectomies in 2001 and 2009.
Early this year, a Leamington woman, Laurie Johnston, went public with her story after Heartwell unnecessarily removed her breast and lymph nodes last fall. That's when Laporte went public.
"I only came forward because of Laurie, and to try and make some changes," she said. "This government investigation is flawed. (Heartwell) is known to make mistakes. The hospital never even knew about it until we came forward."
The report -- which looked into surgical errors and pathology practices at three Windsor- Essex hospitals -- recommends the hospital lift all restrictions on Heartwell's practices.
"I just can't understand how they can say that she doesn't need any restrictions," said Laporte. "You have to be accountable for your mistakes... they're just basically saying, well it's that one per cent, so, we'll just go ahead and let her do surgeries. I just think that's totally wrong."
When the story broke the hospital pointed to "rare human error" while highlighting the impeccable resume of Heartwell -- a surgeon of 28 years experience -- who performed the procedure after mistakenly reading a pathology report.
"They're saying that we're just numbers -- a small percentage of mistakes. Well I happen to be that one per cent, and that really bothers me," said Laporte.
The 74-page report also calls for changes to the ways the hospitals operate together and to communications between surgery and pathology units -- something Laporte is pleased about.
"I know that some changes are being made, and, hopefully this won't happen again because everything will have to be double checked," she said.
Nevertheless, she's lost trust in the medical system.
"I just try to get the message out to people, that you have to be proactive in your own health," Laporte said. "You should ask questions, and see all your reports, because there are mistakes being made.
"We have to look out for ourselves, and step up and say, look, this is my body. I have questions, and I want answers.""
The story can be found at:
http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2699315
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-feature-cases-issues-and.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
