Cassandra Barksdale filed a personal injury lawsuit Tuesday in State Court of Clayton County, saying a biopsy mix-up at Kaiser Permanente led to a false aggressive cancer diagnosis and a total hysterectomy she did not need. The suit names Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Permanente Insurance Company and senior laboratory information analyst Cecelia Prestridge.
Barksdale first sought treatment for uterine fibroids and bleeding at Kaiser Permanente Southwood Comprehensive Medical Center in Jonesboro in early 2025. A March 10 biopsy was read as aggressive endometrial uterine cancer, and that finding sent her to a specialist at Northside Hospital. She then underwent surgery on May 15, 2025, when surgeons removed her cervix, uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries and four lymph nodes.
That surgery became the center of the case because the post-surgical lab reports in May 2025 showed no malignancy. Even so, staff later told her in July 2025 that she had cancer and needed to wait for further instructions, a message that kept the diagnosis alive after the operation had already been done.
The filing says the error was not just a bad reading but a chain-of-custody failure. It alleges the biopsy sample was mislabeled and later DNA testing showed the cancerous tissue belonged to another patient. On Sept. 23, 2025, Kaiser Permanente administrators told Barksdale that the tissue did not come from her, and Quest Diagnostics formally told her in December 2025 to disregard the initial biopsy results.
Barksdale said at an 11 a.m. press conference Tuesday that she told her children she had five years to live and began trying to make financial plans for them after hearing she had aggressive cancer. She said the reversal brought relief, but also anger and sadness, because another patient had been living with the same tissue mix-up for months. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and compensatory damages of more than $10,000, and the next step is now in court.
