Some hospitals actually DO put big markings over the right spot, but if someone goofs before the markings are made, this is what you get. Aren't they supposed to draw the markings and then triple-check though (including asking the patient, if the patient knows what's up)?

And I'd sure be asking why the right kidney couldn't be reimplanted. I guess they just threw it away.

omg I can't imagine this. When I had my kidney surgery in January, 3 different people came in and asked "we're fixing the right kidney, correct?" and they drew on me with a sharpie etc. This wasn't even to remove the kidney just to repair it. How the hell did this happen? Didn't they talk to the patient before the surgery?

I wonder if they're taking it seriously.

Oops! I guess that's what malpractice insurance is for.

I feel badly for the patient and surgeon - neither one at fault. Who screwed up the medical chart?

@Buran: I would think there's a good chance that the removed kidney was destined for further analysis of the cancer. Sliced and diced.

@picshereplz: That's exactly what it is for. As sad as this is, unfortunately this is what happens when you have humans doing the work.

I give the hospital credit for getting out in front of this and accepting responsibility.

I said it yesterday on the "Insurance Company Won't Pay For Child's Leukemia Treatment" thread, and I'll say it again here: FUCK the medical industry, FUCK the surgical industry, and FUCK the pharmaceutical industry. Useless, money-hungry lackwits.

Beginning in October, Medicare will no longer pay for eight hospital mistakes - including:
# Urinary infection from catheter
# Bed sores
# Surgical object left in body
# Air embolism
# Giving wrong type of blood
# Blood infection from catheter
# Chest infection after bypass surgery
# Hospital-caused injury

"We think it's a big deal," said [K.W.], Medicare's acting administrator. He says when the system stops paying for preventable mistakes, hospitals will stop making them."

Video: [www.cbsnews.com]

Transcript:
[www.cbsnews.com]

I had a piece of bone taken out of my skull during an ear surgery, and I was given a permanent marker to put a dot on the right ear. I wanted to draw a giant arrow, but they wouldn't let me. :o) I seem to remember my grandmother drawing "NOT THIS SIDE" on my grandfather when he had a 'sided' surgery as well...and the doctors thought it was hilarious.

@dotcomrade: holy crap. nothing like punishing the patient for a hospital's mistake.

I can hear the HMO now:

"Sorry, you received sufficient treatment. We're not going to cover future surgeries nor put you on an organ donor's list. You're on your own."

What, nobody blamed the patient yet?

@KJones: No, the likely scenario will be that they won't pay for this surgery because it did not treat the disease and they are not liable for a provider's mistake.

It happens. It's unfortunate of course. All the processes in the world can't prevent all mistakes.

I know the Sharpie thing is meant to be a joke, but a few years ago, when I had kidney surgery, they handed me a marker, and made me mark the side that needed to be worked on. It was weird to do, but they got they didn't screw it up.

@wndrwmn24: Not a joke at all. When I had surgery a couple of years ago, they had me mark the spot with a Sharpie the day before. A nurse checked it against my chart. And the last thing they asked me before they put me under was "touch the part we're operating on today."

Oh lovely. Hey Gawker people, the incredible disappearing comments problem is back.

someone pass the fava beans and chianti......

If the mistake was made weeks earlier on the patient's chart, it is possible that the patient was told that the wrong kidney needed to be removed. In that case, even if the surgeon's had double checked with the patient the same thing would have happened.

I can't imagine not marking before operating. When my son had a bone tumor removed from his leg, they made an X with a purple marker on his right femur despite the obvious, giant lump above his knee.

@picshereplz: I guess that's what dialysis, and if the patient is lucky, kidney transplants and a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs are for, too. (Assuming they didn't get the good kidney back in in time) Yup, everything's gonna be just fine!

Do you get pushed to the front of the organ donor line if you have this happen?

At least you have 4 kidneys.

@ClankBoomSteam:

It will be interesting to see you come crawling back when you get sick.

But I do agree about the insurance agencies. Most doctors are/would be willing to treat anyone, but the hospitals generally prevent it.

Wow - so so sad. My guess is the patient didn't know which kidney was necessarily the cancerous one...unless their symptoms were correlary with that kidney (pain on that side of the back, etc.)

I've heard of this happening with back surgeries...x-rays get flipped and the wrong side of the back is operated on.

But yes - this is what malpractice insurance is for. :)

Horrible occurrence. A common problem is medical records and imaging are not readily available due to "privacy issues". There is a good chance you could blame this on HIPPA.

Beginning in October, Medicare will no longer pay for eight hospital mistakes - including:
# Urinary infection from catheter
# Bed sores
# Surgical object left in body
# Air embolism
# Giving wrong type of blood
# Blood infection from catheter
# Chest infection after bypass surgery
# Hospital-caused injury

"We think it's a big deal," said [K.W.], Medicare's acting administrator. He says when the system stops paying for preventable mistakes, hospitals will stop making them."

Thats funny because 1,2,6 and 7 aren't "mistakes" in most cases. And 8 is open to abuse through interpretation.

@dotcomrade: Yah, I hope there is something in there about forcing the hospital to eat the cost of their mistake and preventing them from trying to pass it on to the consumer. My memory is hazy, but I seem to recall that one of the stipulations of billing Medicare is that you can't go after the patient for something that is disallowed (vs. denied) by Medicare. In other words, if you bill Medicare for using a widget while performing surgery X on a patient, and the cost of the widget is not reimbursed by Medicare, the provider can't bill the patient for it. Someone more enlightened than I care to confirm whether this is true or not?

Medicare does have rules in place that prevent providers from trying to collect from patients. Basically, if a patient didn't sign paperwork saying "I am aware that this will not, or may not, be covered by Medicare", then Medicare considers the patient was insufficiently informed about out of pocket costs and therefore you can't bill the patient.

I'm not a physician, but would there by ANY reasonable way of identifying a cancerous kidney before removing it? Comparing the two kidneys while operating (depending on the incision type) doesn't seem to be very time consuming....

I mean, at the least...."Hey, Dr. Smith, why does the cancerous kidney look healthier than the 'healthy' one?"

Anyone a resident, physician, or surgeon that can answer?

I wish the best of luck to the patient.

I have had surgery 16 times and I have never been asked to point out my surgical site or let them know where they'd be operating. Good thing I still have all the right organs!

They do this all the time in china.

@ConsumerAdvocacy1010: I'm no surgeon, but if I was removing one kidney, I sure wouldn't cut the person up so much that I could see both...

@DoctorMD: I'm guessing you didn't read up on the study done in Michigan that reduce most nosocomial diseases out of the gate. The reason many of those issues occur is lack of proper care and hygiene.

Oh the flipped the X-Ray around. That's what happened. Those darn Rascally Surgeons, what other neat tricks will they think up next?

Before I had knee surgery last week, both the Dr and I used permanent marker to put our initials on the correct knee to verify before they put me under anesthesia. If I were going to have kidney surgery, you better believe I would verify from everyone which one they were going to operate on before allowing them to put me under.

@mgy:

I am a dialysis patient and can answer this question just from my own experience. I am classified from the Veteran's Administration as a 100% disabled veteran. I medically retired from the Navy as a result of injuries from the first Gulf War. I was exposed to toxins, chemicals, etc, etc.

The question I always ask and could NEVER get a response to is this: Why do illegal aliens get priority over me for kidney transplants?

I know all about UNOS, and the waiting list (I'm on it), but whenever I see an illegal alien getting a kidney before an American Citizen does, it drives me insane. The VA, the politicians, the news media are very quite on this issue.

People have labeled me "racist" or "hateful" because of my attitude with this very issue. I don't give a shit. I hate every one of those wetbacks who steal an organ that rightfully belongs to an American Citizen. I hate the fact that hospitals happily pay for their surgery when Americans on dialysis can't afford their Renagel because Medicare fucks with their rates. Never mind the fact I'm a Veteran. I am American first and Americans should take care of their own first.

SO, to answer the question: NO, he won't be put to the head of the list because of a screw up. He'll end up fucked like the rest of us Dialysis patients.

Fingers crossed that the "possibly cancerous" organ turns out to be definitively "not cancerous instead!

@MisterE: Please explain how/why illegal immigrants are prioritized above other patients on the organ donor waiting list.

@magic8ball: This is a bit long winded, but since you asked....

I'll quote a couple of websites about this:

[www.aim.org]

"It was news to many people that non-U.S. citizens can be placed on waiting lists for transplants and get the same priority as American citizens. A spokeswoman for the United Network for Organ Sharing was quoted by the Associated Press as saying they cannot perform more than 5 percent of their transplants on noncitizens. This figure has been featured in many reports. But Transweb.org, which handles questions about organ transplants and donations, says the figure is actually ten percent. Some people may wonder why any non-citizens are entitled to this service."

[www.wnd.com]

"UNOS says there's a five-percent cap on transplants for non-resident aliens, but stresses the issue of citizenship is not a factor when getting onto the waiting list."

From UNOS Guidelines: [www.unos.org]

6.2 GUIDELINES. Any member transplant center which agrees to list non-resident aliens on its Waiting List shall adhere to the following guidelines:

6.2.1 Nondiscrimination/Organ Allocation. Selection, from the Waiting List, of non-resident alien candidates for transplantation shall be based on the same allocation policies (Section 3.0) mandated by the Board of Directors for selection of domestic candidates. Such selection shall not be influenced by favoritism or discrimination based on political influence, national origin, race, sex, religion or financial status.

6.2.2 Transplant Centers. Transplantation of each non-resident alien should be done in a transplant center with a historical pattern of international referral and a reputation for both treatment of primary and endstage organ disease and transplantation, with regard to the particular organ(s) being transplanted.

6.2.3 Fees. Transplantation of non-resident aliens is a humanitarian act and shall not be done for financial advantage. Transplant centers listing non-resident aliens on their Waiting Lists shall charge non-residents the same fees for service as those charged to domestic candidates and recipients.

6.2.4 Referrals. Members shall not enter into formal contractual arrangements with foreign agencies or governments for the transplantation of non-resident aliens. OPTN members may negotiate the terms and conditions under which any individual candidate would be treated with the understanding that each candidate must be referred on a case- by-case and physician-to-physician basis.

6.2.5 Community Participation. Each member center which lists non-resident aliens on its Waiting List should establish a mechanism for community participation and review of its candidate acceptance criteria.

6.2.6 Training Programs. To enhance transplantation in underserved nations, it is desirable for transplant centers engaged in the transplantation of non-resident aliens to establish training programs which include transplantation training of physicians from underserved nations and educational programs designed for development of transplantation services in those underserved nations.

And the surgeon did not look at the x-rays of what he'd be working on? I have no medical knowledge here, but would

-- a diseased kidney show up as diseased?
-- the doctor be able to identify which side it was on from the x-ray?
-- the doctor compare the diseased organ to the non-diseased organ?

This was a terrible error, but where was the "eyes-on" confirmation?

And made WEEKS ago?

That's like nobody's checking for typos.

@wesa: I heard of a patient who wrote "my Lawyer's name and phone number is...." on the incorrect shoulder.

I also heard of someone taping the surgeon's favorite candy (a bag of m&m's) to the correct knee/shoulder/whatever.

@ConsumerAdvocacy1010: I am currently working in the OR's at a major Pittsburgh hospital system and as such have seen similar procedures (performed correctly) multiple times. Depending on the type of cancer, the surgeon can sometimes (definitely not all cases) determine whether or not the kidney is cancerous. But the surgeon can not compare the two kidneys because they are on opposite sides of the body. Also generally getting access to the kidneys involves removing a small portion of one or more of the patient's ribs. As you can see that is a little too invasive "just to make sure".

@MisterE:
Sorry to break it to you, dude, but you'll never get a kidney because you are a guinea pig. Your government knows what they dosed you with, and want to see how long before complete organ failure and death.

At least they can bag and tag the illegal aliens, and put them to work in areas and industries that 'Proud Americans' are to good to do.

Next thing we'll hear from you is how the Sub-prime meltdown was caused by illegal aliens.

You are an angry man and should seek out much needed therapy.

Heck, when my dad went in for an operation a while back, not only did they mark an X on that side, but wrote NO on the other!

@MisterE: It's very clear that you don't need to call illegal immigrants wetbacks. Why would you do that, and then complain that people find you racist and inflammatory? It's an offensive word, designed to offend. Don't use it if you want people to take your opinions seriously.

Where is the "Flag inappropriate commenter" button? I feel like I need one for Mr.E's racist diatribe. While I certainly feel that veterans, having served our country, should get priority for medical procedures using limited supplies such as organ transplants, I do not feel that using racial slurs contributes to either the position held by Mr.E, to this discussion, or to any discussion on any topic.

@rellog: I don't know what "out of the gate is?" I do know hand washing can REDUCE the number of infections but due to antibiotic overuse hospitals are the worst sources of pathogenic bacteria and it is impossible to prevent all infections. There is no way to determine if the infection was inevitable or preventable. So screw the hospital?

Too bad doctors and hospitals are honor-less, greedy bastards who won't tell the illegal Medicare/Medicaid programs to go F themselves. Remember medicare is only possibe since price fixing, abuse of monopoly, rackettering, and extortion are allowed for the government. Oh and overlooking gross interference with private contracts.