A Georgia-based mammogram technician was sentenced by a court after she faked reports and cleared women saying that they did not have cancer.
Rachael Rapraeger has been found guilty of falsifying test results of cancer for at least 10 women who actually had breast cancer.
Rapraeger has now been sentenced for up to six months in a detention center. She has to serve 10 years in probation during which she will not be allowed to work in any healthcare field. She has also been asked to pay $12,500 as fine.
Sharon Holmes, a victim of Rapraeger, accidentally found a lump in one of her breasts and a new mammogram confirmed that she was suffering from stage 2 breast cancer.
Holmes successfully got the cancer treated following radiations and chemotherapy. Doctors removed the cancer without the breast being removed.
Reports suggest that Holmes was not the only victim of Rapraeger falsification of report. Rapraeger has cleared around 1,300 women of breast cancer. However, Holmes and nine other women have been reported to have breast cancer.
"I'm thinking I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, getting my tests done, and then I find out someone else isn't doing their job," Holmes told the Associated Press.
Rapraeger gave a very blurred reason for her actions. She told investigators that she had personal reasons because of which she stopped caring for her job and gave fake reports. She claims that she had fallen behind in processing the mammogram films. When she accessed the computer system of the hospital she gave clear reading for many patients. Her lawyer says that Rapraeger's actions gave her an option to get rid of the time it took for the paperwork that was required before the films were sent to the reading room for examination.
She was found guilty of falsifying reports in April 2010 after a woman whose report was cleared of breast cancer faked by Rapraeger had another mammogram done in a different hospital and was found positive of breast cancer.
Rapraeger was prompt to confess of her wrongdoing to her senior and was asked to leave the job a week later. She also told the police that she was aware that what she was up to was not correct.
