A 43-year-old Atlanta woman says a lab mix-up turned a cancer scare into a life-altering surgery she never needed. Cassandra Barksdale has sued Kaiser Permanente and laboratory staff, alleging another patient’s tissue sample was mislabeled as hers and triggered an incorrect cancer diagnosis.
According to Atlanta News First, Barksdale visited her OB-GYN at Kaiser Permanente Southwood Medical Center in Jonesboro in January 2025 to address uterine fibroids and unusual bleeding. Two months later, she underwent an endometrial tissue biopsy that the lawsuit says was mistakenly identified before being sent to an outside laboratory.
The Lawsuit Says A Sample Mix-Up Set The Chain In Motion
The complaint alleges the test came back showing aggressive endometrial uterine cancer, even though the tissue sample supposedly belonged to someone else. Barksdale then received a CT scan that allegedly showed no evidence of cancer, but doctors still recommended a full hysterectomy, according to the complaint.
Barksdale ultimately underwent the surgery, which removes the uterus and ends the possibility of carrying a pregnancy. The lawsuit names several Kaiser Permanente branches and laboratory staff members, accusing them of negligence in the handling, testing and interpretation of the tissue sample.
Barksdale Seeks Jury Trial And At Least $10,000
The lawsuit requests a jury trial and seeks at least $10,000 in damages. Those allegations have not been tested at trial, and the filing itself does not establish that Kaiser Permanente or any individual staff member is legally responsible.
Barksdale and her legal team were scheduled to discuss the case at an 11 a.m. news conference Tuesday, with Atlanta News First reporting that it planned to carry the remarks live. The lawsuit now puts a highly consequential question before the courts: how another patient’s sample allegedly became the basis for an irreversible operation.
