“Where’re my kidneys?” Man got both kidneys removed unknowingly in a surgery

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A 25-year-old man in southwest China’s Yunnan province had his both kidneys removed during a surgery where he was lying unconsciously after a traffic accident on March 10, 2016. Neither did the man nor his family members accompanying him know about this until the patient was transferred to another hospital in the province and couldn’t urinate for days. On March 20, the doctor informed him that he had lost both of his kidneys.

The medical record showed that the man had severe injury in his right kidney when he was rushed to the hospital from the traffic accident scene. The record also indicated that nothing wrong was detected on his left kidney. The hospital later said that the man had horseshoe kidney, which is a disorder that the patient's kidneys fuse together to form a horseshoe-shape. The hospital side also claimed that the man was in a very critical condition for too much blood loss when he was sent there. Hence they proceeded with the surgery, even though they were aware that the surgeons were not fully capable of handling such kind of surgery.

Ever after being informed that both of his kidneys, including the healthy left one, were taken in the surgery, the man and his family had been demanding for proper investigation and report. It was not until August 16 that the man received the report issued by Yunnan Medical Association, stating that the hospital shall take major responsibility for the malpractice. Currently the man is still waiting for kidney transplant.