http://www.kare11.com/news/ts_article.aspx?storyid=501941

It was an interview Dr. Samuel Carlson hoped he'd never have to give:
an acknowledgement that his medical staff at Methodist Hospital made
an unthinkable mistake - removing a healthy kidney from a patient
whose cancerous kidney was left in place.

"This has been a tragic event and Park Nicollet has accepted full
responsibility," said Carlson, chief medical officer for Park Nicollet
Health Services.

The surgery was performed last Tuesday, but it wasn't until the next
day that a pathologist noticed the kidney taken from the patient was
healthy.

The doctor who removed the kidney - a veteran surgeon - has voluntary
stopped seeing patients. Carlson says the mistake may have originated
at a Park Nicollet clinic. "It does appear that it was during that
paperwork process of office documentation that this mistake, this
error, occurred in what location the lesion was."

So called wrong-site surgeries do happen - 24 were reported to the
Minnesota Department of Health last year - but removal of the wrong
organ is rare.

In the four-and-a-half years that state as been assembling data, "I
don't know if we've ever had a wrong organ removal," said Diane
Rydrych, assistant director of the state's division of health policy.

Ryrdrych says most hospitals have safety measures in place to prevent
wrong-site surgery, including marking body parts to be operated on in
advance of surgery and requiring a "time out" in the operating room to
give surgical staff a chance to double check documentation and voice
any concerns.

"I would say that these events are always preventable or almost always
preventable" said Rydrych.

Carlson says standard protocols were followed in the Methodist
Hospital operating room to prevent wrong-site surgery, but revealed
that a new safety protocol has been added. Methodist Hospital surgeons
will now be required to double check MRI or CT scans before starting
surgery.

Dr. Carlson declined to comment on the patient's prognosis, nor would
he reveal the patients age and gender, citing patient confidentiality.
Carlson said Park Nicollet "has apologized to the patient and family,
has provided support and will continue to provide the support the
patient and family need during this difficult and challenging time."

The patient remains under the care Methodist Hospital.