Mother suing laboratory after DNA test failed to catch son’s fatal illness

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During the peaceful moments of Christian Millare’s short life, he’d curl up next to his mother, Amy Williams, as she read Dr. Seuss books out loud. But those blissful times were often interrupted by Christian’s violent and mysterious seizures, which began when he was 4 months old. After one final seizure, he died on Jan. 5, 2008, at age 2.

Now, after more than a year of researching Christian’s case, Williams believes his death could have been prevented if not for an erroneous DNA test result by one of the world’s largest laboratories — which she’s suing. “To find out all that I found out is just a chop to the throat,” Williams told BuzzFeed News.

Williams’ lawsuit is one of a handful over the last decade in which people have sought to hold doctors and laboratories responsible for mistaken or unwelcome DNA test results about themselves and their offspring. Such litigation underscores the growing pains of the young and booming genetic-testing industry, and just how slowly the latest genetic discoveries might travel from lab bench to real patients.

“Given medicine is an inexact science, there’s always going to be errors, and doctors and labs are going to have to make their best estimates,” Gary Marchant, a law professor at Arizona State University who tracks genetic testing-related lawsuits, told BuzzFeed News.

“Every time they’re wrong, it doesn’t mean there should be a lawsuit,” Marchant said. “But on the other hand, when they clearly haven’t lived up to professional expectations, there should be. There’s a gray zone, that’s a difficult line to draw.”

Read full, original post: This Woman Says Her 2-Year-Old Died Because Of A False DNA Test

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