An Arizona widow has filed a federal lawsuit against the Phoenix VA Medical Center, claiming that the hospital mistakenly gave her husband a false diagnosis that led to his suicide.

In the suit, Shirley Fobke claims that her cancer-stricken veteran husband, Gene Spencer, killed himself after the Phoenix VA Medical Center erroneously told him he did not have long to live, reports the Arizona Republic.

In October 2012, a physician at the center told Spencer, who served in the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1970, that his cancer had spread to his lungs, and he only had a few more weeks to live, says Fobke. Three days later, the 67-year-old vet shot himself in the head, reports Fox News.

However, the day after Spencer's death, Fobke received a phone call from the hospital saying that the diagnosis was wrong and he was not about to die. But, by then it was too late for Fobke to share the good news with her husband.

"It just wasn't right," she said. "He deserved better than what they did to him."

Fobke filed a wrongful-death action suit with the U.S. District Court in Phoenix on April 30, seeking $2.5 million in damages from the VA. She did this after the VA initially rejected her wrongful-death claim, reports the Arizona Republic.

The legal claim filed on Fobke's behalf states that Spencer "was not going to die. ... This negligent conduct by the doctors proximately caused an insanity that made it impossible for Gene to resist the impulse to end his own life."

"As a result of the misdiagnosis, Shirley Fobke suffered and will continue to suffer emotional and economic injury, lost wages, lost opportunity for financial gain, future earning capacity, loss of consortium, loss of love and affection," reads part of the suit.

In addition, the letter alleges that the misdiagnosis was just one of many failures Spencer experienced in a VA health-care system.

Penned by former U.S. Attorney Jose de Jesus Rivera, the letter detailed many instances in which the Phoenix VA Center could not admit Spencer or refused to treat him because he lacked a referral.