Mom given months to live, endures “aggressive” chemo — but never had cancer at all

Health

By Amy Eisinger

A mother-of-two claims she underwent “very intensive” chemotherapy – only to discover she never had cancer.

Lisa Monk, 39, of College Station, Texas, first went to the hospital in 2022 for stomach pain that she suspected was related to kidney stones, according to the Daily Mail. Tests at the appointment revealed two kidney stones, but also highlighted a mass on his spleen.

The higher education employee successfully underwent surgery to remove the mass in January last year – but that’s when events took a turn.

Monk claims the spleen was sent to three different pathology labs for testing before finally being sent to a fourth lab, where it tested positive for a rare, terminal form of cancer, called clear cell angiosarcoma, a reported the Mirror.

Angiosarcoma is a type of cancer that forms on the lining of blood and lymphatic vessels, according to the Mayo Clinic. Despite available treatments, angiosarcoma is considered to have a poor prognosis regardless of age or gender.

“It was a blood vessel type cancer found in my spleen and he told me the most optimistic thing he could say was to give me 15 months (to live),” Monk revealed in a video.

“It was a dark time.”

The mother, understandably devastated by this horrible news, ultimately had to tell her husband and two young children about the devastating diagnosis.

“I didn’t tell them at the time that it was terminal or that I was only 15 months old, I just told them it was bad but I was going to try to fight it,” Monk said in the video. “It was my eldest son who experienced it the hardest. My little girl was very good at hiding her feelings, but I found out from her teacher that she was overwhelmed by it at school.

What followed, Monk explained, was an “aggressive” chemotherapy regimen. She was referred to an oncology hospital and underwent her first round of chemotherapy in March 2023. After losing all of her hair, Monk explained that she underwent a second round of therapy which left her vomiting and having a ” silver skin.”

“It was a very dark time. I wrote farewell letters and letters to grandchildren I would never meet and weddings I would never attend.

“She turned to me and looked completely horrified.”

But during a routine appointment in April, the following month, Monk received even more shocking news: She never had cancer. The pathology report, his doctor explained, was wrong.

“I saw the nurse practitioner first and she just asked me about my symptoms and she was scrolling on the computer while she talked to me,” Monk recalled. “All of a sudden she stops talking and has this look on her face. She turned to me and looked completely horrified and told me she had to go see the doctor, then ran out of the room. She left me alone for about 15 minutes and the doctor came back. He talked to me a lot of medical jargon and then told me I didn’t have cancer.

Confused at first, and initially thinking it was a good thing — that her chemotherapy treatments had worked — Monk said she then realized it had all been a horrible mistake.

“The doctor then told me that I never had cancer. (At that time) I looked like I had cancer and I felt like I had cancer because I was vomiting and I was sick and my skin was silver from the chemotherapy,” Monk said.

To add insult to injury, the mother said the doctor later congratulated her rather than apologize for the blatant error.

“The doctor congratulated me afterwards, which really bothered me,” Monk revealed. “At the time I was in shock, but now I think the most appropriate response would be ‘I’m sorry.’ I asked for a copy of their pathology report and found a hallway to call my husband and tell him the news.

But the error doesn’t stop there. Monk claims that after looking at the pathology report at home, she realized it was from a month ago, meaning the hospital had the information before her second round of chemotherapy, but n simply didn’t read the report before his appointment.

“I had had chemotherapy during that time and they could have told me a month earlier and I would have avoided the second round of chemotherapy if they had bothered to read their own pathology report,” Monk added .

“(After finding out I didn’t have cancer), I had to wait a few days and then they confirmed it wasn’t cancer after talking to all the doctors. Ultimately, they determined that my spleen was going to rupture, which is why it was carrying this mass. It was just blood vessel activity and no cancer.

I always pay the price

Now, a year later, Monk says she and her family are still dealing with the mental, emotional and financial consequences of the hospital’s terrible mistake. Financially, she said, they still pay the bills. Despite the fact that it was the hospital’s fault, Monk says she was unable to get any of the bills thrown out.

“I also always looked like I had cancer. I was bald and didn’t look well. It was a daily reminder that this was something we had all experienced. A year after what happened to me, I am angry. They have ruined my health and my insides are cooked,” Monk said.

The mother continued: “I cry for my children for having to go through something like this in their lives where they thought they were going to lose their mother. I can’t take that away from them. I know on paper it’s only a few months of my life, but it felt like a lifetime.