A patient sues after a Florida doctor has removed a kidney by mistake



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Maureen Pacheco who, at the age of 51, went to the Wellington Regional Medical Center in April 2016 to merge the bones of her lower back because she was suffering from pain caused by a car accident years ago.

She left the hospital with a kidney late.

According to a December complaint by the Florida Department of Health against Dr. Ramon Vazquez, a West Palm Beach doctor, Vazquez unnecessarily removed his pelvic kidney from the left side.

According to the complaint, Vazquez "Noted a pelvic mbad and provided a presumptive diagnosis of a gynecological malignancy, lymphoma and / or other metastatic disease."

He proceeded to remove the "mbad" in its entirety, without a prior biopsy to determine the malignancy. But the mbad was not a mbad – it was Pacheco's kidney.

And Vazquez was not even his surgeon.

He was there "to cut it so that his orthopedic surgeons could perform the delicate operation of the back. , Reported the Palm Beach Post. She has just met him shortly before being taken to the operating room.

The Pacheco case was settled in September for "a nominal amount," Vazquez lawyer Michael Mittelmark told the Washington Post. Mittelmark added that Vazquez "has not acknowledged his responsibility and does not think he has made any mistakes". The confusion arose from the fact that Pacheco was suffering from a rather rare disease called "pelvic kidney", which occurs during the development of the fetus. his normal position.

Thus, his kidney was not in the usual upper abdominal region but "functioned fully" even though it was in the pelvic area, reported the Washington Post. If there are no badociated symptoms, such as obstruction or reflux, no treatment is needed and many patients simply live with the abnormality, according to Ann Hospital. and Robert H. Lurie for children from Chicago.

Two MRIs before the Pacheco operation showed that she after her trial, the Palm Beach Post had reported having a pelvic kidney

. Vazquez is a general surgeon in West Palm Beach. According to the state medical council, he has an active license with no record of discipline on file. Following this incident, the Ministry of Health has now asked the medical board to consider suspending or revoking Vazquez's medical license, placing him on probation or imposing an administrative fine, among other things. Other "corrective" actions.

A spokesman for the Wellington Regional Medical Center said in a statement to Inside Edition: Vazquez is not and has never been used by the Wellington Regional Medical Center. Dr. Vazquez was an independent physician enjoying the privileges of the Wellington Regional medical staff as well as other Palm Beach County hospitals. "

Vazquez, the statement continues, is no longer part of Wellington Regional medical staff." The hospital, located at 10101, boul. Forest Hill, "took all necessary and appropriate steps to examine the circumstances of this most deplorable incident. In the more than 30-year history of the Wellington Regional Medical Center, no such incident has occurred before or since. "

Vazquez graduated as a physician at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from Yeshiva University in New York, according to US News and World Report." According to the Board of Medicine of Florida, Vazquez "has a license active without record of discipline on record, "reported the Washington Post.

A 2006 AHRQ study on surgery at the wrong place evaluated nearly 3 million operations between 1985 and 2004 and found a rate of 1 in 112,994 cases of bad site surgery.The authors of the study "suggested that the average large hospital could be involved in such an event every five to ten years, or ten times less than foreign bodies retained. "

" Few medical errors are as vivid and terrifying as those involving patients who have undergone surgery on the wrong part of the body, "says the agency. for health research and quality on his website

Follow @HowardCohen on Twitter.

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