A SURGEON “in a hurry” removed the wrong kidney from a patient and left her dependent on dialysis because he did not bother to read her medical notes, a disciplinary hearing was told yesterday.

The General Medical Council was told how Jerome Blanchard took out his patient’s transplant kidney, which was still functioning, instead of her diseased natural kidney.

Although both kidneys were on the patient’s right side, she had told the surgeon that it was the painful polycystic organ that was to be removed.

The fitness to practise panel was also told that Dr Blanchard did not bother to discuss the operation properly with the woman when obtaining her consent for surgery at the Middlesex Hospital, Central London, in March 2004.

Lydia Barnfather, for the council, said that if Dr Blanchard had discussed the operation sufficiently with the patient it would have become clear what operation needed to be performed.

“The impression he gave her was that he was in a hurry,” she said. “Dr Blanchard examined her and while he was doing so Patient A told him it was her enlarged polycystic kidney that was to be removed and she demonstrated the region of that.”

But it was only when the patient’s daughter noticed after surgery that there was no catheter to support the transplant kidney that Dr Blanchard realised that he had taken out the wrong organ, the GMC panel, sitting in London, was told.

Although the transplanted kidney, which the patient received in 1994, was going to have to be removed eventually, the patient still had plenty of time before it needed to be taken out.

There were other factors, including confusion on the theatre list, that contributed to the wrong organ being removed, the panel was told.

“The mistake would never have been made if Dr Blanchard had been carrying out his own duties with regard to getting an informed consent,” Ms Barnfather added.

The patient, a mother of three who is now on dialysis for four hours three times a week, said that her diseased kidney needed to be removed because she was in constant pain and had a swollen stomach. She told the panel that she had been expecting to see Dr Blanchard the evening she went into hospital but did not see him until shortly before the operation the next day, after she attended an outpatient appointment for a thyroid condition.

“He examined my stomach and he kept asking me where is my transplant kidney and I said, ‘It’s here’. I said to him, ‘You know it’s the big polycystic kidney that is coming out’,” she said, and added that he did not seem to respond. “My whole stomach was out there. You couldn’t miss it,” she said.

The GMC was told that an abbreviation for transplant was marked on the consent form that the surgeon gave Patient A to sign. The patient said that she had not noticed the abbreviation, and would not have let the operation go ahead if she had seen it.

“I just signed it because I trusted him,” she said. “He didn’t say anything about what operation he was going to perform.” She was now back on the transplant list, but did not know how long it would be before another kidney became available.

Dr Blanchard has admitted to removing the wrong kidney but denies misconduct relating to a failure properly to discuss the procedure with the patient or ensuring that he was performing the appropriate surgery. The hearing continues.

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