Lab Which Misread Pap Smears Fined

A medical laboratory that misread the Pap smears of two women who later died of cervical cancer was fined $20,000 - the maximum - on Thursday for reckless homicide.

Circuit Judge David Hansher said the fine - he called it “$10,000 per life” - was “absolutely inadequate” and urged lawmakers to set tougher penalties for such cases.

The case against Chem-Bio Corp. of suburban Oak Creek represented the first time a lab was hit with criminal charges for misreading Pap smears.

Chem-Bio pleaded no contest Dec. 4 in the deaths of Dolores Geary and Karin Smith.

At an inquest, experts reviewed the women’s test slides and said signs of cancer were obvious. Had the Pap smears been read properly, prosecutors said, the women would have had up to a 95 percent chance of survival.