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A Christchurch woman began preparing for the end of her life after being mistakenly diagnosed with cancer due to a file mix-up.

Health New Zealand said the error occurred on May 22 when incorrect images were loaded into Toni Shields’ file.

The organisation notified her GP of the incorrect report as soon as it became aware of the issue on May 29 and staff also spoke directly with Shields.

Shields told the Herald she went to the doctor that Wednesday for an issue related to her spleen. The next day, she was informed that an appointment had been made for her to see a doctor urgently.

“I asked, ‘How bad is it? What is it?’ [The nurse] said, ‘All I can tell you is that there are changes’,” Shields said.

Christchurch woman Toni Sheilds spent six days believing she had cancer due to a medical file mix-up.

She accessed her records through the Patient Portal, which indicated she had multiple masses on her liver, primarily caused by issues with her pancreas.

“I went to the doctor and she sat me down and said, ‘Unfortunately, it’s more than likely you have cancer’. That was a hard pill to swallow. I just got quite anxious and had to sort of get out of there. I spoke to someone in mental health there as well before I left.”

The drive home was agonising as she thought of her two sons.

“Telling them was just heart-breaking. My oldest looked like he’d lost so much weight, and he was glued to the spot and just shrivelling. He was just so broken. My youngest was very, very upset.”

Over the next six days, Shields lived with the belief that she had a terminal illness.

“I was planning my funeral. I was looking into assisted dying. I wanted to get some sort of age-progression pictures of my grandchildren so I could see what they would look like when they were older. I threw a lot of my old stuff out, thinking I wouldn’t be needing it.”

But everything changed with an unexpected phone call from her doctor, who told her she had been given another person’s results.

“She was beside herself on the phone, she couldn’t believe this had happened.

“I’m just like, ‘What? So I’m not dying?’ She said, ‘No, you’re not dying, Toni’.”

The chief of radiology also reached out the following day to apologise.

Shields said telling her sons about her diagnosis was 'heart-breaking'.

Shields said the six-day period had been a “very up and down time” and she was still trying to work out her feelings about the situation.

“I know I’m angry and I want to know how this happened, but I also feel so bad for the person whose results they were. I really, really feel for them. What I went through, they are going through. Sure I got a happy ending, but they’re not.”

Health New Zealand Interim Canterbury group director operations Joanne Gibbs said that a full review of how the mix-up occurred would be conducted to identify improvements and prevent future errors.

“We are sincerely sorry that Toni was given an incorrect diagnosis, and we have apologised for the significant stress we have caused both Toni and her family,” Gibbs said.

“It is extremely unusual for an error like this to be made ... We will continue to be in contact with Toni as the investigation into this incident continues, and she is welcome to contact our Radiology team with any other questions and comments she may have.”

Ben Tomsett is a Multimedia Journalist for the New Zealand Herald, based in Dunedin.