Doctor mistakenly removes healthy kidney to three-year-old child
Peace -
The dramatic case of a three-year-old boy who had his kidneys removed by a surgeon, one of whom was healthy, rekindled in Bolivia the debate over a medical malpractice law, a project that provoked a prolonged strike a year ago.
The situation of little Sebastian has the country shocked, after revealing that a doctor at a hospital oncology Santa Cruz this week by mistake extracted the two kidneys, so he immediately had to be connected to a dialysis equipment to keep him alive .
"A child, who had a basic disease, is operated on the Oncological by a doctor who makes a surgical error and removes the healthy kidney, instead of the diseased kidney." Later, he removes the kidney that corresponded, which is a kidney I had a tumor, "said Regional Health Secretary Oscar Urenda.
The intervention was carried out in the Hospital Oncológico de Santa Cruz (east), the most modern in Bolivia. "It is a very unfortunate case, of course a human error," the official said, quoted by El Deber newspaper.
The father of the minor said separately that the infant will undergo dialysis while waiting for a donor. The child "is already stable, he is evolving well, he could not sleep last night, but he has already had a fever. (Now) talk, look," he said.
While awaiting the results of a medical audit in that city, 900 km east of La Paz, government authorities and parliamentarians of the ruling party and the opposition resumed the idea of passing a law that criminalizes cases of medical malpractice.
The government of President Evo Morales had approved at the end of last year a new penal code that included malpractice , but immediately triggered the rejection of the doctors, who maintained a public hospital strike for 47 days.
The justice opened an investigation to establish what happened in the operating room, while several sectors expressed their surprise because the doctor who operated on Sebastián, Roger Moreno, was known for doing a great job of philanthropy.
