Medical mistake as surgeon removes woman's healthy kidney

It must surely be the fear of many when entering hospital - to be admitted for a routine operation and then a medical error changes your life.

Such is that case here in France of a 67-year-old woman who is now being treated in a Paris hospital because a doctor mistakenly removed a kidney she had received as a transplant back in 2003.

And at the weekend the family filed a complaint against the surgeon responsible, Philippe Rogé.

Sefika Altintas was originally admitted a couple of weeks ago to the Saint-François de Mainvilliers clinic near the city of Chartres, 96 kilometres south of the French capital, for an operation to remove an abdominal hernia.

It was a routine operation even though Altintas was diabetic, and had spent 11 years on dialysis until she received a kidney transplant six years ago.

But Rogé apparently made a vital error during the course of the operation and somehow identified a healthy kidney as tumorous and decided to remove it.

After the mistake had been identified, Altintas was flown by emergency helicopter to the Kremlin-Bicêtre hospital in Paris, where she's now in intensive care.

Even though her life is reportedly not in danger, the repercussions to her health will be enormous, according to the family's lawyer, Marie-Élise Pagnon.

The kidney that was removed is now too damaged to be re-transplanted and Altintas will have to await until another match becomes available before undergoing yet a further operation.

In the meantime she will receive further dialysis treatment - something she had put behind her six years ago.

Even though Rogé has admitted that a mistake was made, Pagnon insists the case raises a number of issues that must be addressed and questions that must be answered.

"Did the kidney really present any evidence of being tumorous and how is it possible to confuse the two?" she asks.

"And even if there had been evidence of a tumour (there wasn't) would it really have been necessary to remove it immediately?"

Not surprisingly perhaps, Rogé has been suspended from the operating theatre.

For the hospital, the case doesn't stop there and its director, Véronique Besse, has promised that there will be complete transparency during an internal inquiry as to what exactly happened.

Medical mistakes happen - that's for sure. And when they do they can have dreadful consequences for patients as the case of Altintas illustrates.

But Besse's reassurances aside, for the Saint-François de Mainvilliers clinic it's not the only high-profile case to have made the headlines this year.

In January, a baby died several hours after being born at the same hospital and the parents filed a complaint against four gynaecologists.

A decision is still being awaited in that case