California Hospital Sued For Accidentally Removing A Woman's Ovaries

• Doctors at Sequoia Hospital, in California, accidentally removed a woman's ovaries

• The procedure was entered incorrectly in the hospital's surgical schedule

• The Redwood City hospital has been fined $47,450 for the mistake

• Seqouia is one of 14 hospitals with civil penalties lodged against it for incidents including serious injury or death

A California hospital is being sued after doctors accidentally removed a woman's ovaries.

Doctors at Sequoia Hospital, in Redwood City, were supposed to remove the patient's uterus, fallopian tubes and appendix during a procedure in February 2016.

However, the procedure was entered incorrectly into the hospital's surgical schedule - and her ovaries were taken out.

Now, the woman will need estrogen replacement therapy for life, and the hospital has been fined $47,450.

The staggering case is just one of 17 being brought against 14 California hospitals for causing irreparable injury or death in recent years.

A report from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) revealed that a woman, whose name and age have not been released, went in for surgery to remove her fallopian tubes, uterus and appendix.

However, her ovaries were removed, although it's unclear whether the ovaries were removed in addition to, or instead of, the other three.

State health officials have fined the hospital $47,450 for the mistake.

The care and safety of our patients and staff are the highest priority at Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital and we take this matter very seriously,' said a spokeswoman for health system Dignity Health, which owns the hospital.

'After self-reporting this event to the CDPH, we fully cooperated during their investigation and immediately took steps to ensure this never happens again, including revising protocols and staff re-education.'

The fine against Sequoia is one of 17 civil penalties lodged against 14 California hospitals for incidents that caused serious injury or death.

Totaling at $1.1million, the penalties against the hospitals were announced by the CDPH on Thursday.

Four of the 14 hospitals, including Sequoia, are in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The other three - all of which had fatalities - are Kaiser Foundation Hospital and California Pacific Medical Center: St Luke's Campus, both in San Francisco, and Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa.

Kaiser received a fine of $147,000 for two separate incidents that resulted in patient deaths in 2015 and 2016.

In one, a patient receiving dialysis had his line disconnected from his catheter, causing massive blood loss and cardiac arrest, according to the report.

The second involved the mishandling of a patient's tracheotomy, a procedure to unblock the airways.

St Luke's was fined $47,450 after a female patient fell in 2015 while under the care of hospital staff, hit her head, underwent brain surgery and died.

Queen of the Valley was fined $225,000 for three separate incidents in 2013 during which staff failed to properly monitor patients' symptoms or administered incorrect treatment. Two patients died and a third was left in a vegetative state.

'We sincerely regret that these incidents occurred and extend our sympathy to the families involved,' said a Kaiser spokeswoman.

'In response to these incidents, and to ensure such situations never occur again, we immediately investigated their root cause, evaluated our processes and implemented systemic improvements and training for our nurses, physicians, and staff.'



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