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CLAYTON COUNTY, Georgia (WUPA) — A metro Atlanta mother is suing the healthcare organization Kaiser Permanente, alleging that a tissue specimen mix-up led to a false cancer diagnosis and unnecessary hysterectomy.
On Tuesday morning, Cassandra Barksdale and her attorneys filed a negligence lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente in Clayton County.
They said the past year has taken a physical and emotional toll on Barksdale while she believed she had an aggressive form of uterine cancer, only to learn later of a misdiagnosis.
“The first thing that came to mind, I thought I was going to die, so I started researching,” Barksdale said. “When I researched it, it said that I have up to five years to live. I had to contact my kids to let them know that I have five years to live, and I’m going to die because I have aggressive cancer.”
According to the lawsuit, Barksdale went to Kaiser Permanente’s Southwood campus in Jonesboro in March 2025 for heavy bleeding and fibroids.
After a biopsy, she says she was diagnosed with an aggressive endometrial uterine cancer.
The lawsuit alleges another patient’s tissue specimen was mistakenly attributed to Barksdale and sent for testing under her name.
“I was very angry and sad, and I was very concerned about the other person, and also it messed with me mentally,” said Barksdale.
Barksdale said the ordeal has put her in counseling.
The lawsuit claims Kaiser Permanente’s doctors recommended surgery. Barksdale said she had a total hysterectomy in May, removing her uterus, cervix, ovaries, fallopian tubes and four lymph nodes.
After the surgery, testing on the tissue removed during surgery found no cancer, the lawsuit alleges.
“Her surgical treatment for cancer was unnecessary. Her loss of her ovaries was unnecessary. The complete extinguishing of her ability to have more biological children was unnecessary,” said attorney Roderick Edmond.
Months later, Barksdale says she received a revised pathology report stating that the specimen, “belongs to a different patient,” and that the earlier cancer diagnosis should be disregarded.
The lawsuit says Kaiser later told Barksdale that DNA testing showed the specimen that tested positive for cancer belonged to another patient.
“This woman didn’t ask for this. It came to her. She just came for regular help, and it came to her. What does she want? She wants accountability,” said Edmond.
Barksdale is a mother of two, and her legal team says she was not ready to relinquish her physical ability to give birth.
“She had her tubes tied, but she didn’t want to foreclose out the possibility of still being able to have intrauterine fertilization,” said associate attorney Shannon Young.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a jury trial. The allegations have not been tested in court.
In a statement provided to CBS News Atlanta, a spokesperson for Kaiser Permanente said that the company was “committed to working with Ms. Barksdale and her counsel to resolve this in the most fair and accountable way we can.”
“Our most important responsibility is to safely, expertly and compassionately care for the people who entrust us with their health. If we make a mistake, it can have profound effects,” the statement from the spokesperson read, in part. “Ms. Barksdale should not have experienced this. 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.”
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