Hundreds of patients in a British hospital mistakenly received a horrific message instead of a Christmas wish: they were going to develop aggressive metastatic lung cancer.
The wrong text went to hundreds of patients at Askern Medical Practice in Doncaster. Twenty minutes later they got another message from the hospital, with a text message that was even more reassuring. The second text read: “Our message should have been: We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.” The hospital apologized for the error.
In those twenty minutes, the necessary panic had already arisen. The hospital’s phone lines became overwhelmed as many patients called the facility. In addition, some recipients of the text message have gone to the hospital to speak with their doctor.
These two letters are in the possession of various British media. The son of one of the patients, Carl Chegwin, told the BBC: “The first thing I thought was, ‘Is this a bad joke?'”
One patient, who asked not to be named, said she was “extremely concerned” by the news. I called the doctors but I was waiting as usual. So I just went to the hospital, which is not far from me. There were six people who panicked in the hospital because they had the same message.”
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