A cancer patient who lost a lung in a botched surgery believes he should get a life-changing transplant.
Ian Tollemache was an unnamed patient mentioned in last month’s Health and Disability Commissioner report who had the wrongpart of his lung cut out by a surgeon.
Corrective surgery eight days later removed the cancerous tumour with his whole left lung but meant the cancer that had since developed in his remaining lung was inoperable.
The business software computer programmer said he was not satisfied with the official explanation of how the accident happened.
“I’d like to get some answers more than what they’ve given us around what happened at the hospital,” Tollemache said.
Ian Tollemache. Photo / RNZ, Nick Monro
“If they’d cut that [the lower lobe], I’d be back at work in a week and instead he cut the upper lobe and left a lung with cancer in it and no blood supply.”
According to the HDC report, the doctor (referred to as Dr B) claimed their error was a result of the lung rotating during surgery, citing a medical phenomenon called lung torsion.
That was despite independent clinical advice from Dr Richard Bunton who said this was the first reported case he had seen where the wrong lobe had been removed.
“It is a little difficult to understand why ‘alarm bells’ did not ring when after dividing the inferior pulmonary vein [to the lower lobe], which [Dr B] clearly did, he went on to divide the upper lobe,” Bunton said in the report.
“This vein is situated in the anterior-superior position of the hilum and clearly not related to the lower lobe.”
This medical mishap was not made clear to the patient until after the second surgery was completed.
The report said there were also documented concerns from the associate charge nurse, who said the patient had “no clear understanding” as to what occurred during the first surgery.
“My dad was not informed of his right to a second surgeon,” said the man’s daughter, Dr Cherie Tollemache.
“The investigation found the many nurses on site knew that an accident had happened and that he needed a second life-saving operation.”
The Health and Disability Commissioner found Dr B in breach of Right 4(1), Right 6(2), and Right 7(1) of the code.
That included every consumer having the right to have services provided with reasonable care and skill, having the right to information needed to make an informed choice or give informed consent and services only being provided to a consumer who made an informed choice and gave informed consent.
The doctor apologised unreservedly to Tollemache and his family.
“After the second operation he was so distraught that he was virtually crying and you could see the mistake had messed with him,” said Tollemache.
“You just have to make sure you’re out of range of the fan when it moves around. I have to get on with my life and if I want to live a reasonable remainder of my life I have to do things I enjoy doing, hating him doesn’t help me.”
Tollemache’s family said he had since lost income and quality of life as a result of a painful recovery period.
“I can’t sleep through a night because every time I wriggle those muscles get engaged and the pain wakes me up. I wake up 10 times a night,” Tollemache said.
“Those drugs they give me to help me sleep destroyed me, I’ve lost me.
“My whole career was about being able to use my mind to solve problems and it was business software that I did,” he said.
Tollemache was told he could return to work a few weeks after surgery, instead, he had been unable to continue his career due to the pain and powerful medication.
