A Halifax woman says she is still in disbelief after her breast was mistakenly removed due to a mix-up in laboratory results.

It all started in January when Sharon Fisher went for a routine mammogram screening. She says doctors found something questionable in her mammogram results so they decided to do a biopsy.

In February, she says her family doctor called to tell her she had breast cancer. Fisher says she was stunned by the news.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all because I had always had routine mammograms,” she says. “It really shook me. I mean, I was just in shock and then fearful about what that really meant.”

Fisher discussed her options with a surgical oncologist, who encouraged her to undergo a mastectomy, as opposed to a lumpectomy, to lower the risk of the cancer returning.

Fisher says she agreed to the mastectomy, wanting to do what was best for her health.

“I said ‘no, I want to be done with it.’ I just wanted peace.”

On March 28, Fisher had her breast removed. She says it was difficult to cope with the loss of such a personal body part.

“I was very sad that this was happening…I was sad that I had to do that, that I had to live like that now.”

But things were about to get worse for the 67-year-old patient.

She went back to the hospital for a follow-up in April, about five weeks after her surgery, and received some more shocking news from her surgical oncologist.

“She sat down and she said ‘I don’t know how to tell you this. I’ve been trying to think all week how to tell you this,’” recalls Fisher. “The good news is you don’t have cancer.”

“That’s all I remember hearing. Then I was just stunned because I knew what that meant. If I didn’t have cancer, why did I have a breast removed?”

Her doctor told her there had been a mistake and that her chart had been switched with another patient’s. It turns out Fisher never had cancer, while the other patient did. She didn’t find out until months after the initial biopsies.

“You get angry…I’m still in disbelief that it really happened,” says Fisher. “You try to cope with it…but you can’t. I’m learning how to cope with it.”

Fisher says she grew even angrier after watching an interview with Chris Power, the CEO of the Capital District Health Authority, on Monday.

“In both of these instances, this was a combination of systems, busy processes, you know, busyness around, and human error,” Power told CTV News.

But Fisher says that’s not an acceptable excuse for such a serious mistake.

“There’s a person here that’s been affected and it shouldn’t have been just because of busyness.”

Fisher says the mistaken mastectomy has changed her life and has also had a major impact on her family, particularly her son and her sister, who was with Fisher when she was told about the mistake.

Lynne Foley says she worries about her older sister.

“It’s been difficult, you know,” she says. “We don’t like to leave Sharon alone, I don’t want her upset. We just want her to be OK.”

Power said Monday there was no legal action being taken against the hospital but Fisher’s lawyer, Ray Wagner, says he sought documents from the hospital in May.

“I did receive a call for the first time from the counsel for the hospital yesterday,” he says.

He hasn’t filed anything with the courts yet, saying he and his client would rather avoid a long court fight so she can continue with her life.

“There should be no reason, if we go to a process that’s participated in an open and fair way, that this matter should be concluded by the end of the year,” says Wagner.

But the ordeal will never be over for Fisher. She says she is reminded of the devastating mix-up every time she looks in the mirror.

“I look at the scar and it’s ‘oh my God.’ It shouldn’t be there and you can never get away from it.”

With files from CTV Atlantic's Rick Grant