Sorry, wrong kidney

Sorry, wrong kidney

A kidney recipient had to have the new organ removed hours after the transplant when it was found the patient’s blood type had been incorrectly recorded.

The incident, thought to be the first of its kind in Britain, was revealed in a Freedom of Information request.

The mistake was made after staff at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals Trust wrongly recorded the patient’s blood type as A positive and sent it to the computerised national transplant database.

The correct blood type, O positive, was reportedly entered clearly on the hospital’s paper records. The body which manages the database, UK Transplant, then sent out a compatible kidney with an A positive patient, which was transplanted. The error was picked up when a data entry clerk at the hospital checked the patient’s notes against the computer record after the operation.

Further checks revealed that a second renal patient had been registered with the wrong blood group.

Blood type blunder forces kidney removal at Liverpool hospital (Liverpool Daily Post, 20 January 2008)