A Montana man, who endured nearly a decade of chemotherapy, was devastated to learn that he had never actually had cancer. Anthony Olson, now 47, was initially diagnosed in 2011 with Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS), a rare group of cancers affecting blood cells in the bone marrow, by Dr. Thomas C. Weiner, then an oncologist at St. Peter’s Health in Helena. Olson was told that without immediate treatment, he would die within the year.
At just 33 years old, Olson’s life was permanently altered by this diagnosis. However, the results of two bone marrow biopsies raised questions about the accuracy of the diagnosis. While the first biopsy showed signs of MDS, the second, taken ten months later, came back clear. Despite this, Olson was urged by Dr. Weiner to disregard the second test, which was explained away as a sign that the treatment was working.
Years passed, and Olson continued to receive chemotherapy. It wasn’t until 2016, when Dr. Robert LaClair, a kidney specialist, discovered that Olson had an iron overload and that the chemotherapy was worsening his anemia, that doubts about his diagnosis were raised. Dr. LaClair grew increasingly confident that Olson had never had MDS and recommended that Olson seek a second opinion.
By 2019, Dr. LaClair, now head of the hospital’s peer review committee, took action, leading to Dr. Weiner’s termination after a review of Olson’s case. St. Peter’s Health later confirmed that Olson had been harmed by receiving unnecessary treatments, including chemotherapy.
In 2021, Olson stopped his cancer treatments, and a year later, he filed a lawsuit against St. Peter’s Health, which was settled with an undisclosed amount. Dr. Weiner denied the allegations of malpractice and later sued the hospital for wrongful termination and defamation. His lawsuit was dismissed by a Montana judge, but he has appealed the ruling, with the case currently pending before the state Supreme Court.
This troubling case raises concerns about medical misdiagnoses and the devastating consequences of unnecessary treatments that patients are subjected to due to medical error.
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