简体中文
A man in eastern China found to his shock that his right kidney was missing after his chest surgery. After months of investigation, hospital authorities on May 10 released statement saying that the patient’s kidney might have had decayed naturally.
The incident occurred last June when Liu Yongwei, a farmer from Anhui province, was admitted to a hospital affiliated with the Xuzhou Medical College in Jiangsu province after he was wounded in a car accident. He suffered multiple fractures and injuries in the chest. Liu said that he underwent chest surgery to “replace organs to their right positions”.
Hospital records revealed that the doctor did take out Liu’s right kidney. However, the records said the kidney was then put back after it was certain that the organ was not damaged.
Liu Yongwei holding his MRI images
Liu underwent another wound debridement procedure for infected tissues before he was discharged from the hospital.
In mid-August 2015, Liu went to Hefei, the capital of Anhui province, to seek further treatment. It was in Hefei where Liu found that his right kidney was missing. CT scans, conducted in at least three hospitals, failed to detect his right kidney. Liu sought help from police, but without success.
Authorities from the Xuzhou Health and Family Planning Commission, a local government department that is responsible for providing information and monitoring the quality of health services, conducted an investigation on the case after Liu's story was reported widely and immediately went viral online.
Liu Yongwei and his medical diagnosis on which was written "right kidney missing"
On May 10, 2016, in a statement posted on department’s official website, authorities explained that the new CT scan has confirmed that "Liu is suffering from atrophic kidney disease and has kidney shrinkage symptoms".
The investigation had Liu gone through a series of check-ups including CT scans in the Nanjing General Hospital, one of the three hospitals that previously had failed to locate his kidney.
Authorities from the Xuzhou Medical College, where Liu was firstly admitted for surgery, insisted that the doctor had returned the kidney.
What is coincident is that this medical college has been under the supervision of the Xuzhou Health and Family Planning Commission, who in turn is conducting the investigation and publishing the results.
Liu hasn't expressed his reaction to the investigation result, but he had previously said that if he had any further question on the investigation result, he would be willing to take a surgery to determine where exactly his kidney is.
(PEOPLE'S DAILY ONLINE)
