The mother of an 8-year-old boy broke down today as she recalled asking staff at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, on several occasions to double check what kidney her son was to have removed before he underwent surgery at the hospital in 2008.
Jennifer Stewart said she was under the impression her son was to have his right kidney removed since an outpatient appointment at the hospital on January 17th 2008. However consultant paediatric surgeon Prof Martin Corbally, took an erroneous note of that consultation, recording that the child needed his left kidney removed.
It set in train a series of events which culminated in the child having a wrong kidney removed at the hospital on March 21st 2008, leaving him with one poorly functioning one.
A medical council inquiry into the fitness to practice of Prof Corbally and a junior doctor on his team Sri Paran - who actually removed the wrong kidney from the child - heard that the child's father Oliver Conroy even asked for "photographic evidence" from kidney scans to be checked when he was outside the theatre on the day of the operation so they could put their minds at rest.
They had previously asked a nurse and a different junior doctor to check which side he was to have surgery on the night before when their child was admitted. Both said they would check the medical notes.
They also brought the issue up with a nurse when they arrived in theatre and were "embarrassed" asking. Mr Conroy said he told Dr Paran to check the x-rays before the operation and when he came back and showed them the medical notes - which stated the child was for left sided surgery – they consented to the operation and went off to buy the child toys.
They expected the child to be in theatre for a couple of hours but after four hours they got concerned. They were about to go for tea when Prof Corbally came up to them and told them the child's healthy kidney had wrongly been removed and apologised. They were very upset.
He said they had tried to put it back in and had called a transplant team from Beaumont who advised it was best to take it out again. They had to give their consent for this having been advised "it just wouldn't take".
The operation took place on Good Friday, when according to nurse Olive Delaney there was a skeleton staff on. Ms Stewart said all along they believed Prof Corbally had carried out the surgery until Dr Paran came to them on Easter Sunday and explained he had carried out the surgery and apologised. "We got very upset then," she said.
She added that they were naive and trusted the doctors. While her son had "done much better than expected" and was now attending school and playing x-box and with his friends and didn't need dialysis at present she said she and the child's father "worry each day" about when he's going to need dialysis and a transplant.
"We are just living day by day," she said.
She confirmed the family were pursuing a legal action against the hospital.
The hospital's CEO made a complaint about the two doctors to the medical council and the child's parents, who were not identified when an independent inquiry into the incident was published some time ago, said the reason they were at the inquiry to give evidence was to ensure what happened to them didn't happen to any other family.
"The reason why we're here today is so this will never happen to another child or family again ... this can't happen to another child," she said.
Prof Corbally is facing 15 allegations of professional misconduct. Dr Paran faces 13 allegations of professional misconduct.
The inquiry has yet to hear evidence from the two doctors but in a statement to the media this evening Prof Corbally said the error was a source of deep distress and regret to him. "I again unreservedly offer the patient and family my heartfelt apology for this tragic episode," he said.