An Atlanta mom was told she had years to live from another patient’s cancer results, then had her uterus removed for nothing

An Atlanta-area mother says a lab mix-up led her to believe she was dying of cancer for months, ultimately resulting in a full hysterectomy that a new lawsuit claims was completely unnecessary. According to the New York Post, Cassandra Barksdale, 43, sought care at a Kaiser Permanente facility in Jonesboro, Georgia, in January 2025 after noticing abnormal bleeding tied to her uterine fibroids.

A biopsy followed, and her lawsuit claims a lab worker mixed up the samples, attaching someone else’s tissue results to her name. That March, Barksdale was informed she had a “high-grade, aggressive endometrial uterine cancer,” despite a CT scan around the same time turning up no evidence of the disease or its spread, the suit states. Acting on that diagnosis, a doctor recommended surgery to remove her cervix, uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, and four lymph nodes.

Even after that operation, tissue testing kept coming back clear. The suit says pathology reports showed no sign of malignancy, yet Barksdale was still advised to move forward with chemotherapy. It wasn’t until September 2025 that doctors told her the cancerous tissue had actually belonged to someone else entirely, a patient the suit says was unknowingly living with the real disease.

The fallout went beyond the misdiagnosis itself

Barksdale’s lawsuit alleges negligence and claims she has suffered lasting harm, including a newfound fear of medical treatment. Speaking at a press conference, she described the toll the ordeal took on her family. “My sons went into a deep depression,” she said, recounting how she had to tell her children she had roughly five years left to live because of what she believed was aggressive cancer.

“I started contacting other attorneys to try to get trust funds so that way I could leave my house and have trust for my kids,” she said. “It took a big hold over my family.” Barksdale said her relief at not actually having cancer came mixed with guilt over the other patient involved. “I was very angry and sad, and I was very concerned about the other person,” she said, noting that person had spent months believing they only had fibroids while unknowingly carrying an aggressive cancer diagnosis.

Her attorney, Roderick Edmond, expressed disbelief that a mix-up like this could happen. “We’ve got computers, we’ve got science, we’ve got AI, how the hell did this happen?” he told reporters. Kaiser Permanente acknowledged the error in a statement. “Ms. Barksdale should not have experienced this,” a spokesperson said. “We have highly trained staff and very thorough processes in place to prevent errors like this from taking place. After this occurred last year, we took immediate steps to ensure it could not happen again.”

A comparable case recently resulted in a major verdict when a Maine surgeon removed the wrong organ during what was supposed to be a routine procedure, and a jury later awarded the patient’s family $17 million. Barksdale is seeking damages and a jury trial, according to the lawsuit.

The case remains pending, and Kaiser Permanente has not indicated whether it plans to contest the specific allegations of negligence.