ANYBODY NEED A KIDNEY?

In July, doctors at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts removed a ‘tumorous’ kidney from a patient. But - one humongous oops – the kidney was healthy. The doctors operated on the wrong patient.

Here, from the Worcester Telegram, is the story:

According to the 32-page [state Department of Public Health] report, on July 20, the patient was at St. Vincent to have the left kidney removed because of a large tumor.

During the surgery, it was determined that the patient’s kidney did not have a tumor. The kidney was sent to the Pathology Department which notified the surgeon that the kidney did not have a tumor.

“It was later determined that (the patient’s) admission and plan for surgery to remove the tumorous kidney was based on another patient’s Computerized Tomography (CT) scan results, in error,” the report read.

The Operative report revealed that there were two patients with the same name who had CT scans at another hospital on the same day in June and their birth dates were a few years apart.

After the error was publicized in August, Ms. Noonan said in a statement that the patient's outside physician misidentified the procedure the patient needed before he was brought to St. Vincent. The patient's physician scheduled the surgery at St. Vincent Hospital.

The internal investigation done by the hospital determined that the medical record of the patient who was mistakenly operated on did not contain a CT scan report, one of the methods the hospital uses to confirm a patient’s diagnosis, the investigation found.

Nurse practitioners, who are responsible for the assessment of the patient’s condition and needs, who were interviewed, said the pre-admission testing unit did not always receive reports and physician notes prior to their assessment of the patient before surgery.

Mr. Lyons, the DPH spokesman, declined to say if the patient whose kidney was removed by mistake received another kidney.