Misdiagnosis? After being diagnosed with a tumor, a 77-year-old patient had part of his lung removed at a Toulouse hospital. Very weakened, he died a few months later, in February, after learning from his family doctor that the excised organ did not actually have a tumor, our colleagues at the office this Tuesday.
“After this lobectomy, Claude’s condition continued to deteriorate. This is not by chance. For me, this ablation, which should never have been done, contributed to his premature death,” believes his wife, Dominique, interviewed by our colleagues .
Postoperative complications
It all starts when doctors detect cancer cells in Claude. The retiree underwent surgery at the Larrey hospital in Toulouse at the end of October 2021. On this occasion, the lower lobe of his left lung was removed.
But the operation has serious consequences: as his wife explains to the officehe is struggling to recover, suffering in particular from postoperative lung disease, that is, a lung infection linked to a microbe.
Added to this weakening of his state of health is a piece of news that calls everything into question: in a letter, his family doctor writes that the lobe that was removed did not actually present any tumor.
“Medicine reserves these kinds of surprises,” replies the surgeon
The surgeon who operated on him replies that “medicine reserves these kinds of surprises,” our colleagues point out. “I had never seen this,” he continues, before advancing two hypotheses: either the white blood cells managed to destroy the cancer cells, or there was an “error in the biopsy.”
After the office, the Toulouse CHU states that the doctors met several times with Claude’s relatives. “They once again assure the family of the quality of care and compliance with good practices in accordance with the patient’s health status,” says a press release.
Too upset by her husband’s death in February, Dominique declares that she has not taken legal action against the hospital. Above all, she points out, she does not blame the CHU doctors as much as the health system as a whole. “I do not want to lambaste this or that doctor, it is an entire health system that I want to denounce.”
Source: BFM TV
