A consultant surgeon has blamed 'human error' for a mistake which led to the wrong kidney being removed from an eight-year-old boy at Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin in Dublin.
Giving evidence today at a Medical Council inquiry, Professor Martin Corbally said he felt great pity and sadness that the concerns raised by the boy's parents before the operation had not been listened to.
He said that at a meeting with the parents in 2008, he recommended a nephrectomy, the removal of the right kidney, but erroneously wrote that the left kidney should be removed.
Prof Corbally said he may have been distracted and a human error occurred.
The error was not spotted until after the wrong operation was performed.
Prof Corbally said he had intended to do the operation himself but this was not possible on the day.
Consultant surgeon, Professor Martin Corbally says he intended to perform the operation but delegated it to a junior doctor who had 30 minutes to prepare for the procedure.
The junior doctor, Mr Sri Paran has said he was given five minutes' notice to perform the operation and that before it, Prof Corbally pointed out that the surgery should take place on the left kidney.
He said he will never forget having to inform the parents that the wrong operation had been performed and could not be reversed.
Prof Corbally said he wanted to again apologise to the parents.
The inquiry also heard that Prof Martin Corbally and his team see around 1,200 patients a year.
He said the hospital now has a policy for marking the site of planned surgery, before the operation.
