'Horror' as doctor cuts open wrong patient's head – reports

2018-03-02 12:47

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Nairobi – A Kenyan doctor has reportedly been suspended after performing a brain surgery on the wrong patient.

According to Daily Nation, this was "one of the worst cases of medical malpractice to become public at Kenyatta National Hospital".

The report said that two men had been wheeled into the hospital last weekend – one needed a surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain "while the other only required nursing and medication to heal a trauma swelling in his head".

There was, however, "a horror mix-up of tags", which resulted in the wrong man being wheeled into theatre and his skull opened.

Doctors only realised the mistake hours into the surgery "when they discovered there was no blood clot in the brain".

Wrong labelling 

A report by the Standard newspaper said that the hospital had since apologised for the "monumental blunder". The hospital said that it had done all it could "to ensure the safety and well-being of the patient in question" adding that it had suspended the doctor.

But according to The Star, the doctor’s colleagues had protested the suspension, saying that the nurses who prepared the patient for surgery were the ones at fault for wrongly labelling the two patients. 

"As unit colleagues, we believe that while our friend may have exhibited some procedural shortcomings, the surgery was done on the wrong patient mainly because of wrong patient labelling by the ward staff," the doctors were quoted as saying.

Both patients were said to be in good condition.

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