Health News
Vietnamese woman's kidneys removed in medical blunder, cover-up
Dec 12, 2011, 8:47 GMT
Hanoi - A Vietnamese surgeon has admitted removing both kidneys from a patient instead of one, after damaging the healthy one by mistake during surgery, authorities said Monday.
Tran Van Nguyen initially claimed the operation was 'successful,' but later admitted that he had 'touched' the patient's healthy right kidney, and had to remove it to prevent her bleeding to death, the director of the local health authority told dpa.
The family of Hua Cam Tu, 37, demanded an ultrasound when her health started deteriorating after the operation on December 6 to remove her diseased left kidney, said Bui Thi Le Phi, director of the Health Department of Can Tho City, in the far south of the country.
The ultrasound showed both kidneys had been removed, and Nguyen then admitted he had damaged the right one during surgery, the state-run newspaper Viet Nam News reported.
The surgeon had been suspended, the report said. The patient was still alive, but unwell.
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