Cassandra Barksdale sued Kaiser Permanente in State Court of Clayton County on Tuesday after she says a mislabeled biopsy sample led to a false aggressive cancer diagnosis and a total hysterectomy on May 15, 2025. Her lawsuit says the error set off a chain of treatment that removed her cervix, uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries and four lymph nodes.
At an 11 a.m. press conference, Barksdale said, "I had to contact my kids to let them know that I have five years to live, and I'm going to die because I have aggressive cancer." She also said, "I was excited that I didn't have cancer."
Clayton County lawsuit
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 is represented by Roderick Edmond, Shannan Young and Clark Edmond of The Edmond Firm.
Barksdale sought treatment for uterine fibroids and bleeding at Kaiser Permanente Southwood Comprehensive Medical Center in Jonesboro in early 2025. A March 10, 2025 biopsy led to an incorrect diagnosis of aggressive endometrial uterine cancer, and she was referred to Northside Hospital based on those lab findings.
May surgery and later testing
On May 15, 2025, surgeons performed the total hysterectomy. Post-surgical lab reports in May 2025 showed no malignancy, yet staff later told her in July 2025 that she had cancer and needed to await further instructions.
On Sept. 23, 2025, Kaiser Permanente administrators told Barksdale that DNA testing showed the cancerous tissue belonged to someone else. The lawsuit says the sample belonged to another patient who actually had the advanced, aggressive cancer, and Quest Diagnostics formally notified her in December 2025 to disregard the initial biopsy results.
Barksdale seeks damages
The filing alleges chain-of-custody failures and negligence, putting the handling of the biopsy sample at the center of the case. It seeks compensatory damages over $10,000 and a jury trial, giving Barksdale a path to ask a court to sort out how the mislabeled tissue moved from the lab to surgery and where the error occurred.
For Barksdale, the suit turns a diagnosis into a records question: how a sample from one patient became the basis for surgery on another, and why the mistake was not caught before May 15.
