A hospital patient in Massachusetts, was devastated to learn that his kidney was removed after a doctor mistook him for another patient who shared his name.
The incident unfolded at the St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester.
Health officials warned the hospital to implement changes in order to prevent such a mistake from happening again.
Medicaid and Medicare could cut its ties with the hospital if the changes are not implemented.
According to the investigation, a surgeon removed a healthy kidney from a patient who had the same name of another patient with a diseased kidney.
The other patient had tumors in his kidney. The surgeon failed to follow the proper protocol by not checking the patient’s birth date before surgery.
If the surgeon would have checked the patient’s birth date, the error would not have happened, investigators said. A spokesperson for the St. Vincent Hospital called it a deeply unfortunate situation.
