Wrong kidney removed from child

Updated 15.44 Mon Apr 21 2008

Keywords: Dublin, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Ireland

The largest children's hospital in Ireland has admitted removing the wrong kidney from a child during surgery.

Dublin's Our Lady's Children's Hospital said an inquiry is under way and apologised to the family. The child has since been discharged.

The country's health service has faced a barrage of criticism from both the media and opposition politicians after a series of high-profile incidents

Details of age, gender or when the operation took place are not being made public for privacy reasons.

A patients' support group has hit out at Health Minister Mary Harney over the blunder. Patients Together spokeswoman Janette Byrne said: "This leaves patients and parents of children going in for tests and X-rays concerned and worried and wondering what's happened.

"The Minister for Health will bounce off the questions to the Health Service Executive (HSE), the HSE will refuse to answer, there's this complete hiding behind each other which leaves everybody with lots of questions and no answers.

"Should the Minister for Health stand down? We've seen promises of ten-point plans, we've seen promises of emergency plans, the promises go on and n yet nothing is changing. If she was working in a private company she would have been sacked long ago for poor performance."

A hospital spokeswoman said a copy of the internal review would be given to the family when completed.

She said: "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.

"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 country's health service has faced a barrage of criticism from both the media and opposition politicians after a series of high-profile incidents.

As well as repeated horror stories of the standard of treatment in some of the country's A&Es it emerged last year that nine women were mistakenly given the all clear for breast cancer at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise.

The revelation prompted a review of thousands of patients and caused national outrage, with an inquiry revealing mismanagement within the HSE.