In what is seen as a tragic medical blunder, a clutch of doctors from Kenya’s prestigious Kenyatta National Hospital performed a brain surgery on the wrong patient. A mix up between the patients, who was admitted on February 18th and 19th, 2018, caused the doctors to perform a complicated blood-clot removal surgery on a patient who merely needed medication for a swollen head. It was only a couple of hours later that the doctors discovered there was no blood clot in the brain and that they were operating on the wrong patient, reports the Guardian. Following the incident, the neurosurgeon who headed the surgery, two nurses and an anaesthetist have all been suspended.

Amid rumours that the patient on whom the surgery has performed has died, the spokesperson for Kenyatta Hospital has clarified that no such thing had happened and that the patients are recuperating. The hospital has also went on to clarify rumours floating on social media that the person who was rumoured to have died is Angelos Miano. The spokesperson said that Mr Miano’s death was an unrelated case, which has nothing to do with the mix up.

As per a report in The Star, the doctors at the Kenyatta National Hospital have rallied around their suspended colleagues in a show of support, saying that they shouldn’t be paying the price for someone else’s mix up. The error was a result of the hospital staff’s negligence in labelling the patients, according to these doctors.

The controversy has broken out at a rather inopportune moment because the said hospital was already in midst of battling a sexual harassment controversy, earlier this year. More than 30 women have confessed to being sexually abused at the Kenyatta Hospital, known to be the largest public hospital in the country.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 05, 2018 03:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).