A pensioner whose stomach was removed after she was wrongly diagnosed with cancer has received a substantial out-of-court settlement, her lawyers have said.
The 74-year-old grandmother, who does not wish to be named, will use the substantial undisclosed payment to pay for care and support for the remainder of her life.
Law firm Irwin Mitchell said the settlement to the patient, from Rugeley, Staffordshire, was agreed following an admission of liability by Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Trust.
The woman, then aged 67, underwent surgery in December 2004 after being told she had a cancerous tumour following a series of tests at Cannock Chase and Stafford General hospitals.
However, following what the patient believed to be life-saving surgery at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, pathology tests revealed that her tumour was benign and that earlier tests had been wrongly interpreted.
Commenting on the case, medical law expert Timothy Deeming, who represented the woman, said: "This was a fundamental error which could and should have been avoided.
"What is of particular concern is that this wasn't an individual human error but involved a team of clinicians.
"Sadly this is not the only case I have personally dealt with where pathology results have been wrongly misinterpreted as stomach cancer.
"When such errors do occur, the public needs to be reassured that the hospitals concerned and the NHS as a whole are learning lessons so that such catastrophic incidents are not repeated."
Mr Deeming added: "My client and her family have understandably been devastated by what has happened. She not only went through the trauma of believing she had a life-threatening tumour and the ordeal of having her stomach removed, only to discover later that she did not have cancer and the operation to remove her stomach was unnecessary."