Court cuts medical negligence payout to B.C. woman who had unnecessary mastectomy

VANCOUVER – The British Columbia Court of Appeal has cut damages awarded to a woman who was misdiagnosed with breast cancer and underwent an unnecessary mastectomy.

It reduced the amount awarded to the woman by a B.C. Supreme Court jury in Vancouver last May from $400,000 to $250,000.

Court documents say Dr. Robert A. Wolber performed the full mastectomy in 2016 in response to the misdiagnosis, but when the excised tissue was examined after the surgery, there were no signs of cancer.

Reasons written by Justice Ronald A. Skolrood, and concurred by two other judges in the appeal decision, say that the $400,000 amount was “inordinately high.”

The reasons say that an award that high would need to be justified by “debilitating injuries that have catastrophic effects on the plaintiff’s ability to function.”

The court document says that, though the injuries were significant, they did not meet that threshold.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2024.