Hospital and laboratory are objectively responsible
for errors in diagnosis but
the doctor who operates based on
these reports is not. Based on this understanding
the rd Panel of
the Superior Court of Justice ordered a university hospital and a laboratory to pay R$ in moral damages to a patient who underwent surgery to remove her right breast after being wrongly diagnosed with breast cancer. In addition
the entities must bear
the costs of implanting
the pros
thesis and its subsequent replacements. The absence of malignancy of
the tumor was confirmed only after surgery. According to
the records
the situation was extremely complex and difficult to analyze.
It was also mentioned that the surgery was performed
Germany Phone Number without new exams or controls. According to the case's rapporteur Minister Marco Aurélio Bellizze the defect in the provision of the service was characterized as the laboratory presented an incorrect diagnosis resulting in material and moral damage. Thus there was a violation of article III and article of the Consumer Protection Code. According to the minister the STJ understands that when providing medical examination services laboratories have an obligation to provide results which implies objective liability in the event of an incorrect diagnosis.
Furthermore the rapporteur explained that the laboratory should have warned the patient about the possibility of an error in the result. If there was complexity in the exact diagnosis of the disease due to the possibility of variation in results it would be beneficial for the laboratory in order to provide a defect-free service to inform the patient of this fact or even without major medical explanations regarding the probability of an erroneous result would suggest the need to carry out new or other complementary tests to confirm the diagnosis stated the rapporteur. In his vote Bellizze also considered the costs of treatment and the patient's emotional state after the diagnostic error.
