The Lam Dong General Hospital in the namesake Central Highlands province mistakenly performed a surgical operation for a man after looking at the X-ray scan of another patient, a hospital representative confirmed on Wednesday.

The case was attributed to a mix-up of X-ray scans from the two patients.

On Tuesday, N.H.H., a resident in Lam Ha District, Lam Dong Province, visited the hospital for a medical checkup as required by a doctor at a lower-level hospital, during which time he was asked to take an X-ray.

After reading the X-ray, doctors identified a pipe wire in H.’s stomach and asked him to undergo an endoscopic surgery.

When receiving the X-ray scan result, H. was extremely surprised. He said he had undergone a kidney surgery earlier and follow-up examinations annually, so he could not have a pipe wire in his stomach.

However, he agreed to undergo a surgery following doctors’ consultancy.

The X-ray scan result that the Lam Dong General Hospital mistakenly gave to N.H.H., who wrongly underwent a surgery. Photo: T.A. / Tuoi Tre

During the surgery, doctors saw no pipe wire in H.’s stomach.

They asked him to undergo another X-ray scan and later found that the X-ray scan unit had earlier wrongly handed over the X-ray scan result of another patient to H.

After detecting the mistake, the hospital held a meeting involving related units to clarify the case and discuss how to prevent the situation from reoccurring, said director of the hospital Le Van Tien.

The hospital has contacted H.’s family to make an apology and ask about H.’s health. The hospital committed to returning H.’s hospital fees and providing follow-up care.

In the coming time, leaders of the hospital and doctors will visit his house to apologize to H. and his family.

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