(Associated Press) An investigation has found that a surgeon at a Massachusetts hospital removed a kidney from the wrong patient after failing to confirm the patient’s identity.
State and federal health investigators said the surgeon was supposed to remove a kidney with a tumor from a patient at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester in July, but instead removed a healthy kidney from a different patient with the same name.
Authorities said the hospital failed to follow proper patient identification protocols by checking birth dates. The patients were several years apart in age.
