On Oct. 17, 2013, a surgical instrument called a power morcellator tore into the uterus of Amy Reed, an anesthesiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, pulverizing what were believed to be benign fibroids.
Reed's "minimally invasive" hysterectomy, a routine procedure, was performed at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.
Alas, Reed's uterus contained an occult sarcoma, which the morcellator proceeded to spread through her abdominal pelvic cavity. Over ensuing months, as Reed battled to stay alive, her husband, Hooman Noorchashm, a cardiothoracic surgeon and, at the time, a lecturer at Harvard, waged a national campaign to put an end to the practice of power morcellation.
Read the full story on The Cancer Letter: http://www.cancerletter.com/articles/20140704_1
