No action is to be taken against an Ayrshire surgeon who removed the wrong kidney from a cancer patient, leaving him facing a life on dialysis.
According to the BBC, the General Medical Council (or GMC) had been considering whether to strike Riza Murat Gurun off the medical register. However, it said that a combination of factors led to the mistake. It heard that pre-operative scans had wrongly identified the tumour in the right kidney.
The GMC decided that the surgeon’s fitness to practice was not impaired. It said that it was not necessary to issue the surgeon with a formal warning.
Patient John Heron went in to Ayr Hospital in March 2006 to have a cancerous tumour removed from his kidney.
The GMC hearing in London was told that a pre-operative scan wrongly suggested the tumour was in his right kidney and surgeon Mr Gurun went ahead with the surgery even though other scans were not available.
It was only when the pathology lab checked the organ which had been removed that they discovered it was healthy.
The GMC’s Fitness to Practice Panel heard that a number of different factors led to the mistake including the fact that the patient’s symptoms were on the right side, the CT abdomen report wrongly indicated the tumour was in the right kidney, and a GP referral letter referred to a “right-sided lesion”.
Although Mr Gurun was found guilty of misconduct the panel found that his ability to practice was not impaired. However the panel noted that the surgeon had attempted to act to get the best care for his patient following the error and held the patient’s care as his primary concern.
It does not seem from the evidence provided that the mistake by Mr Gurun was solely attributable to him and indeed it appears that it was a combination of other errors which meant that the surgeon ended up removing the wrong kidney. However, there could undoubtedly be a claim for personal injury brought against a combination of Mr Gurun, Ayr hospital and even Mr Heron’s GP as it seems clear that all three fell below the standard of care that Mr Heron might have expected from them.
