The man, who had been on chemotherapy treatment for nine years, left feeling sad after discovering he never had cancer. Shocking details revealed…

After nearly a decade of chemotherapy, a man discovered that his disease had been misdiagnosed.

Dr. Thomas C. Weiner, a former oncologist at St. Peter’s Health, Helena, Montana’s sole adult acute care hospital, diagnosed Anthony Olson with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) in 2011.

The National Cancer Institute defines MDS as ‘a category of malignancies in which immature blood cells in the bone marrow do not develop or become healthy blood cells.’.

Weiner warned Olson, then 33 years old, that if he didn’t begin therapy, he would be “dead by the end of the year.”

“That diagnosis changed the direction of my life,” Olson, now 47, told ProPublica.

Weiner requested two bone marrow samples before Olson’s diagnosis, but only one indicated symptoms of MDS.

The second test, done 10 months later, came out clean.
Despite the fact that the second biopsy revealed no evidence of MDS, Olson continued to get therapy for the next nine years.

Weiner apparently encouraged him to disregard the second biopsy results, claiming that it was a sign that the therapy was working and that he should continue it.

When ProPublic confronted Weiner about the negative results, he stated, “That doesn’t mean you didn’t have sickness. It just signifies that the therapy was effective in knocking it away. It doesn’t imply you didn’t have it from the start.

However, in the years that followed, the hospital retested the original sample and discovered that Olson had never had MDS in the first place.

Dr. Robert LaClair, a renal expert who was handling Olson’s dialysis, discovered in 2016 that Olson had an “iron overload,” bringing the man’s abuse to light.

In addition to having an “iron overload,” LaClair discovered that Olson’s chemotherapy was worsening his anemia, which he had prior to his MDS diagnosis.

By 2019, LaClair looked certain that Weiner had misdiagnosed his patient and advised Olson to seek a second opinion. A year later, he expressed his concerns to the hospital’s peer review committee, and when LaClair became chairman of the group, he dismissed Weiner.

St. Peter’s Health went on to accuse Weiner of causing ‘damage to patients by receiving therapies, including chemotherapy, that were not clinically indicated or necessary’ in Olson’s case and in the treatment of other patients under his care.

Olson stopped his cancer treatment in 2021 and sued St. Peter’s the following year. The hospital resolved and paid an unknown sum.

Weiner has rejected all of the charges and sued the hospital for wrongful termination and slander.

According to ProPublica, a Montana court rejected the claim, but Weiner later filed an appeal.

As of December 20, the appeal remained pending before the state Supreme Court.

In a statement to UNILAD, St. Peter’s Health stated about Weiner’s situation: “Our patients entrust us with their health and well-being, and we take that privilege and obligation very seriously.

“St. Peter’s remains fully committed to providing the great care and experience our community deserves, with a focus on moving forward.”