Surgeon mistakenly removes woman’s healthy kidney
A surgeon removes the woman’s kidney after mistaking it for a tumor
Maureen Pacheco was supposed to be having back surgery to help with spinal pain when her healthy kidney was mistaken for a tumor and removed by Dr. Ramon Vazquez. Dr. Vazquez thought the kidney was a cancerous tumor as it was located in the pelvic area, not the usual place for the organ to be but it was still functioning correctly before removal.
An MRI scan prior to the surgery showed Mrs. Pacheco’s kidney was fully functioning in the pelvic area, Dr. Vazquez was provided with copies of the MRI scan and if he had viewed these copies before operating as he should have, the loss of the kidney would have been avoided. The correct procedure if a surgeon is to find a mass in the body is to take a sample to be tested not to cut the whole thing out.
Mrs. Pacheco is suing the hospital, Dr. Vazquez has been suspended with an investigation to follow but he is not accepting wrongdoing or liability claiming other doctors should have informed him with regards to Mrs. Pacheco’s kidney placement. The hospital has commented saying “All the necessary and appropriate steps have been taken to ensure an incident like this does not happen again.”
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