Parents questioned plans to remove child's healthy kidney
The parents of a child who had a healthy kidney wrongly removed at the country’s leading children’s hospital repeatedly questioned surgeons’ plans, it emerged tonight.
An investigation into the blunder at Our Lady’s Hospital in Dublin blamed a catalogue of factors for the botched operation.
The child, who has not been named, was left to live with a poorly functioning right kidney after the surgery last Spring.
But Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin tonight admitted the family repeatedly raised concerns and questioned if the correct kidney was being removed up until minutes before the procedure.
“The family did raise concerns about their child’s surgery, on a number of occasions, up to and including the time of handover to theatre,” a hospital spokeswoman said.
“These concerns were not fully addressed by the hospital and Our Lady’s takes full responsibility for this tragic error.”
The report by experts at London’s renowned Great Ormond Street Hospital also said the heavy workload of senior doctors and the lack of a double-check procedure played a part in the error.
The child, whose name, age and gender have not been released for privacy reasons, is still being treated at the hospital.
The child was admitted with a defective right kidney, but consent was sought to remove the left one.
The probe also revealed a ’near miss’ at the Crumlin hospital in 2001.
The hospital’s chief executive Lorcan Birthistle said a patient who booked to have a left-side operation had an incision made in his right side before surgeons realised their mistake.
The correct procedure was then carried out.
It detailed ten factors that contributed to the young child losing a healthy kidney earlier this year.
These included delays in filing hard copy x-ray reports in the medical records, patients being regularly admitted outside of working hours and workload of senior doctors.
The investigation also found consent for surgery was usually taken by surgeons not competent to perform the procedure.
The report has also blamed an incorrect imaging report that was six years old and the fact that there was no fail-safe system to ensure a patient having surgery had their case discussed by a range of experts.
It said the operation was carried out by a paediatric surgeon who had not previously seen the child, and when the blunder became obvious it was too late to do anything about it.
Eight recommendations have been made to ensure the mistake is not repeated, including:
:: The hospital should formally monitor the hours junior doctors work.
:: Surgeons should introduce team briefings at the outset of each theatre list to discuss patients,
:: Radiology and x-ray systems should be reviewed.
:: Consent processes should be revised.
