Woman claims for damages after having breast removed

A woman whose healthy breast was removed when she was wrongly diagnosed with cancer launched a High Court damages action yesterday.

Anita Froggatt, 31, was the victim of a series of "indefensible misdiagnoses", her counsel, Christopher Gardner QC, told Mr Justice Forbes in London.

The events at Chesterfield Royal Hospital in February and March 1999 engendered "almost unimaginable psychological trauma", the court heard. Mrs Froggatt was referred to the hospital by her GP after reporting a non-tender lump in her right breast. She underwent an excision biopsy and was told she had a grade three invasive carcinoma.

But an inquiry later concluded that the wrong breast had been removed.

It was only when she was referred for high-dose chemotherapy to treat her "lively and aggressive" cancer that it was discovered that she did not have the disease – and never had.

Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Royal Hospital NHS Trust admits liability in the case. Mr Gardner said that it was the second such incident of wrong diagnosis at the hospital within a year.

The hearing continues.