A surgical team at Park Nicollet Heath Services in Minnesota removed the healthy kidney from a patient last week, and left behind the possibly cancerous kidney. We were going to make a dumb joke about this is why you should draw a giant X over your good body parts with a Sharpie marker before a surgery, but the mistake was made in the patient’s medical chart weeks before—the surgical team followed all proper procedures.
The error occurred in diagnosis before the surgery took place. The surgery staff followed all appropriate safety protocols, including marking the surgical site and pausing before surgery to confirm the final details.
Unfortunately, the side of the affected kidney was incorrectly identified in the medical chart several weeks before the surgery took place.
“Metro doctors remove wrong kidney” [KSTP.com] (Thanks to Lucille!)
(Photo: crucially)
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@ribex:
Yes, the kidney was disected in pathology. The pathologist was the one that discovered it was a healthy kidney.
@mgy:
No, you don’t get pushed to the front of the donor list. The remaining kidney has cancer, and may be removed to stop the spread of cancer. The patient needs to be free of cancer for 6 months to even make it to the donor list. I’d bet dollors to dougnuts he’ll have some cancer left after the other kidney is removed; limph nodes or something like that.
@ConsumerAdvocacy1010:
Sometimes they can see if a part is cancerious or not prior to removal, but not always.
I’m not a doctor, but my wife is. This should NOT have happened.
–
Kevin
[velcroman98.googlepages.com]
So who made the mistake on the chart? It might have been a physician, but it might just as likely have been an $8 / hour medical assistant who was flipping burgers the day before she was hired.
The point is that just because someone at your doctor’s office wears a lab coat, that doesn’t mean that they have any medical credentials.
OMG. I would sue the pants and boxers off those doctors. Not that it would make the loss of my functioning liver better, but just to make a point. This reminds me of the guy who was getting a leg removed and he wrote all over that leg that that is the one to be removed and they removed the OTHER leg instead! That is so f*cked up, millions and billions of dollars cannot replace good health. They need to put this guy on the top of the liver donation list! Heck, those docs/assistants should all be tested and give their livers to the patient!!
@MisterE: You may have been labeled racist and hateful because you use racial slurs. It’s inappropriate to use them, and most people don’t care to hear them. Please don’t express yourself that way here.
@rochec: Uh, I never said I wouldn’t go SEE a doctor; I’m not an idiot. I simply said “fuck them” — as in, these people are scum who take advantage of a simple human need and get rich doing so. Was that somehow unclear?
@MisterE: One little point for you to consider — noncitizen != illegal alien. Would you deny an organ to my stepfather, currently a citizen of the UK, living here with a green card while he waits to qualify for citizenship? What about a foreign student stricken with sudden illness while here studying in the US? I sure hope France would have considered giving me a kidney if I’d needed one while I was there.
That said, your use of slurs tends to bring down your level of discourse, as others have mentioned, so any valid points you may have wanted to bring up about the prioritizing of organ recipients are probably lost in your racist diatribe. I think you’re seeing things a little too black & white — for you it’s just Americans vs. Everyone Else, isn’t it?
Everyone, Please be patient and understanding with MisterE.
My experience is that people on dialysis sometimes have issues with controlling their emotions and especially their anger. I am on dialysis and find that at times I do not have control of my emotions. I get angry sometimes at the drop of the hat and say stupid hurtful things. I later find myself apologizing for what I preciously said. (And then going home to burst into tears about it.) In talking with my dialysis nurses, I am told the the dialysis often changes hormone levels abnormally and causes this.
@mikey07840: I’d be totally understanding of his ranting. Hormones aside, I assume dialysis and the need for it, is hugely stressful.
But that doesn’t excuse the racial slur. Typing takes a little more time and thought than speaking — that word is part of his vocabulary, not something he just blurted out in a verbal tirade.
When I had a breast biopsy, the nurse gave me a Sharpie and had me draw a big X in the general area. Then both the nurse and the doctor asked before the giant needle went in the first time.
I guess if I was going in for surgery, I would ask to have the area marked if it wasn’t offered.
LAWSUIT…
oops.
@MisterE: Heh, you are hateful and racist. Anyway, it’s not as if they really have the priority. It’s more of an evaluation. If they deem that they have better chances than you at sustaining the new transplant, it will go to the alien.
A human is a human and a life is a life. Get over the race and nationality factor.
@mgy:
Nope, but they should harvest the moron who made the error on the charts. The prick probably isn’t even a blood donor.
On a side-note, I believe we should have an organ donor “a-list.” If you’re signed up as an organ donor or can’t donate for a medical reason (i.e. AIDS), you get priority over those who are too selfish/religious/whatever to be donors.
I used to think it was odd how several medical professionals could make a mistake like this – they went to school for how many years and payed how much money?
“It’s the one on the left, right?”
“Right.”
“OK.”
This is malpractice. The problem is not the chart error but the surgeon apparently not doing his/her job. I’ve never seen a surgeon operate on a tumor without looking at X-rays,CT scans, MRI’s and such to determine the location and extent of a tumor.
The patient is likely going to require a lifetime of dialysis or a transplant if the tumor involved kidney is removed.
Pathetic
This is an unfortunate case, and while the instant consumerist reaction is to point blame at someone, it’s hard to say who dun it. The chart was screwed up several weeks before, which would mean that the patient herself might not know the correct kidney to remove; the surgical team involved is NOT at fault, they did their job to their finest ability. Why didn’t the surgeons catch the error while they were inside? Because unless the cancer was some sort of late-staged renal cell carcinoma, it could look just like a healthy one, and they wouldn’t open up enough to get a side by side comparison.
What can be done to right this problem? The American Way would be to sue so that malpractice premiums could increase and further drive up the price of healthcare. Medically, the cancerous kidney is still inside, and that does need to get out, but that will also mean dialysis for at least six months; the patient can’t just get a new kidney asap, she’ll have to be cancer free for at least six months, I believe another consumerist has already stated this. I’ve also seen a number of consumerists getting angry, and some of them are out of line (who mentioned removing the wrong liver? RTA!). Cripes.
The only good news about this horrible mistake is that, according to the Star Tribune, the hospital voluntarily went public about it instead of letting it slip under everyone’s radar:
[www.startribune.com]
@Dervish: That IS good news. And Ben should be happy — they apparently are not “taking it seriously.” At least, not on record in the article as such.
“Proper procedures” ought to include verification of which organ to remove. The medical field seems full of these horrible processes and I see little to no initiative on the part of doctors, hospitals, medical insurers, or malpractice insurers to force better processes. The doctors did what they were supposed to, but the process was broken. Process improvements such as this one are what the medical community (in large part) sorely lacks:
Michigan Infection Checklists
If I ever need surgery I would like to be awake when they mark me up. Then I will also mark where the spot is. Maybe even write notes where they are not supposed to operate.
“Wrong kidney.”
@Buran: I would imagine that the patient might not even know. I’m wondering if someone looked at the x-ray backwards during the intial diagnosis and said “Your left kidney has a tumor.” Patient would think it’s the left one and everyone else would too until the kidney was cut out and no one would know until the biopsy was completed.
Maybe, Mr.E, you’re being bumped because you’re an ass in person too. Ever wonder what your chart might look like? Maybe your dialysis nurses, doctors, transplant authorizers all see that you’re an ass…. Who knows what they could be circulating about you! Better watch out, they might put fake dog doo in instead of a kidney if you DO ever make it to surgery.
But I tend to agree with DualityShift… Grade A guinea pig.
It’s also troubling that a veteran doesn’t understand the difference between “illegal alien” and “non-US citizen” or “non-resident.”
@mikey07840: We should cut him slack because of the claims he makes about his military service and current health? I can’t verify that, so I’m not cutting him slack. I can say, however, that he is most definitely a racist bastard, based purely off his own statements.
I take the racists comments very seriously….
@Roundonbothends:
– a diseased kidney show up as diseased?
Depends of the type of failure that necessitated the surgery. Growths on the inside of an organ wouldn’t be visible even on the diseased kidney (I think).
– the doctor be able to identify which side it was on from the x-ray?
The surgeon typically doesn’t prep the patient for surgery. Also, x-ray interpretation is the radiologist’s specialty.
– the doctor compare the diseased organ to the non-diseased organ?
How many times do you want to slice the patient open? More/bigger/deeper cuts –> greater chance of infection, complications, and healing time.