wiegie Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Surgeon at Methodist Hospital Removes Healthy Kidney by Mistake By Anna Boyd 14:50, March 19th 2008 1 vote Minnesota hospitals have struggled for years to eliminate wrong-site surgeries, but just as soon as they think they’ve made progress, they find another gap in their safety protocols. This time, the error occurred weeks before the surgery at Methodist Hospital, when the kidney on the wrong side was identified on the patient's medical charts as cancerous. The patient, whose name has not been released, was left with the cancerous kidney when the healthy one was removed last week. “This is tragic error on our part and we accept full responsibility for this. We feel just profoundly responsible for this,” said Dr. Samuel Carlson, chief medical officer for Park Nicollet Health Services, which owns Methodist Hospital, KARE 11 reported. The surgery was performed last Tuesday, but only the next day a pathologist noticed the removed kidney was healthy. That’s when the patients was informed about the error. "The discovery that this was the wrong kidney was made the next day when the pathologist examined the material and found no evidence of any malignancy," Carlson said. The hospital has apologized to him and his family and “is working closely with them to support them in every way we can.” The surgeon responsible for the situation has voluntary stopped seeing patients. No other staff member has been removed from duty. Hospital officials would not disclose what treatment the patient is following now because of privacy laws and the family’s request, but they said that when a patient has only one kidney that may be cancerous, you either try to save it and beat the cancer, or you have to remove it and start dialysis or consider a transplant. In some cases, Carlson said, cancer could make someone ineligible for a transplant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Thats sad. I have a friend who is a little bit of a nutjob. He went in for a knee surgery and he drew a big X on the bad knee with a magic marker so they didnt make a mistake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 unbelievable. can you imagine the sinking feeling....uhh, yeah, we just took out your one healthy kidney. mistakes happen, but dayum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 I wonder if they can bump this guy to the top of the donor list. Thats just an awful story Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polksalet Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 paid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 paid Obviously that thought eventually pops in your head when you read a story like this but what good is it when you're left with the cancerous kidney and less options to beat it then you had when you went in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikesVikes Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 I was going to post this story yesterday when it was the top story in the newspaper for the day. I've never heard of another story like this in Minnesota and the health care around here is normally top of the line. You always hear about stories when a Doc forgets his instruments inside the patient or things like that, but never quite like this. The hospital sent this story out themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 60 Minutes did a story on a hospital giving Dennis Quaid's babies a blood thinner by mistake too. It was the second time the bottles were confused(adult and child versions) and the nurses didn't read the bottle. It happened months apart at different hospitals. Amazing when simple precautions like this aren't followed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8tank Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 One can only wish and hope for the day our postal and DMV workers will be performing our health care. Come on HItlery care, we are ready! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dingleberry Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 I have no idea how a thing like this is even possible. I had surgery on a pec about a year ago. Before they put me out, I'll bet they asked me a half dozen times which side it was on. Then after the final time that they asked they used the ol' magic marker to identify which side it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmarc117 Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Thats sad. I have a friend who is a little bit of a nutjob. He went in for a knee surgery and he drew a big X on the bad knee with a magic marker so they didnt make a mistake. i was watching a medical show on discovery i think and some hospitals have you do this. put an x or write something on your body so the right operation is performed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.