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A Florida woman who had undergone a routine operation to end her lower back pain was horrified to find that her experienced surgeon had removed one of her kidneys after confusing it with a cancerous tumor.
According to the Daily Mail, Maureen Pacheco, now 53, has suffered a lower back pain following a car accident she had suffered before. Wanting to permanently get rid of the pain, Pacheco went to the Wellington Regional Medical Center in Wellington in April 2016 to discuss surgical options.
She was referred to Dr. Ramon Vasquez Jr, whom miVIP describes as "a reputed general and vascular surgeon with over twenty years of experience in providing superior results."
Vasquez informed Pacheco that he would merge the bones of the affected area with the help of his team: he would perform the opening and then an orthopedic surgeon would perform the fusion.
The first part of the surgery took place without a hitch. But when Vasquez was supposed to retire and let his colleague take over, he thought he saw a mass in his pelvis and declared the state of emergency. The kidney would then be removed before the rest of the team is allowed to continue the operation.
It later became apparent that Vasquez had not been informed of two pre-operative MRIs that showed a pelvic kidney at age 53, which is the result of an unusual but harmless congenital anomaly. After waking up from her anesthesia, Pacheco was informed that her kidney had been removed and, quite rightly, upset, she filed a lawsuit against the hospital.
While the lawsuit would be settled amicably for $ 500,000 last September, the main surgeons who were supposed to merge the bones of his lower back, doctors John Britt and Jeffrey Kugler, agreed for $ 250,000 each, according to the records of the state's Office of Insurance Regulation – but the harm was done long ago.
With only one kidney, Pacheco has a higher risk of chronic renal failure and kidney failure. She also risks suffering from hypertension and losing kidney function later in life. The Palm Beach Post has reported the words of Mark Mittelmark, Vasquez's lawyer, who said that his client had been content with a "symbolic amount".
The Florida Department of Health has filed an administrative complaint against Vasquez, who previously had a spotless disciplinary record, no malpractice insurance, and could face various penalties for losing his medical license and paying a fine.
The department's complaint indicates that the doctor posed a "presumptive diagnosis" when he noticed what he thought was a malignant pelvic mass when he opened Pacheco's lower back. He also stated that his cancer diagnosis was not related to the patient's state of health and was therefore "medically unnecessary". In response, Mittelmark strongly blamed Wellington Regional for failing to inform his client that the patient had a pelvic kidney.
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