THE STATE'S largest children's hospital has admitted it recently removed the wrong kidney from a child during surgery and it has apologised to the child's family.
Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, said yesterday an investigation into how the "significant and regrettable medical error" occurred is ongoing.
In a statement it said the parents of the child were immediately informed of the incident. It said the child had been discharged and "continues to recover".
The hospital said: "This is an unprecedented event at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin and the focus of our response is to support the family, establish the facts and ensure the ongoing safety of all the children we serve at the hospital."
The age of the child or where the child comes from are not being revealed to protect the family's privacy and it is not clear why one of the child's kidneys was being removed. However, if one kidney was diseased or malfunctioning it would not be uncommon to remove it as many people lead perfectly healthy lives with just one kidney.
The problem, however, for this child is that a healthy kidney was accidentally removed and the child is now left with just one problematic one.
The hospital said: "Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin can confirm that a significant and regrettable medical error occurred recently in relation to a patient. An internal review was initiated and continues to completion in relation to the facts surrounding the error. The Board of Directors of the hospital will consider the detail of the review and act where appropriate.
"The parents of the patient were immediately informed of the incident. The family were and continue to be given full support by the hospital staff. The staff of Our Lady's have reiterated to the family our sincere apologies for this most unfortunate error.
"The patient has been discharged from the hospital and continues to recover. The family are happy to remain at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin for follow-up care.
"A copy of the internal review report will be shared with the family once completed. They are being kept fully informed of the review process."
The hospital also said "the family have asked the hospital, on their behalf, to appeal to the media to respect their privacy and do no want any personal publicity. The family will not be making any comment," the statement said.
Mark Murphy, chief executive of the Irish Kidney Association (IKA), said he was horrified at what had happened, as the hospital and the family in this case obviously were also.
"It possibly reflects a very pressurised health system and obviously people under pressure are more liable to make mistakes," he said.
He said the review would have to answer questions like whether the healthy kidney, when taken out, could have immediately been transplanted back into the patient, if such an opportunity presented itself and if it was taken.
He said it was not uncommon for patients to have one kidney removed and remarked that one in every 1,000 people around the world are born with just one kidney and most of them would probably never become aware of it. He added that the IKA would be happy to support the family in this case if it wanted to make contact with it.