Vanderbilt University Hospital Sued for $25M for Operating on Wrong Kidney

A Tennessee woman says Vanderbilt University Medical Center operated on the wrong kidney during her surgery in what federal officials call a “never event.”

The Tennessean reports Carla Miller says the error damaged her urinary system and she now needs dialysis for life.

She’s seeking more than $25 million in damages in a lawsuit filed March 19.

Vanderbilt officials declined comment to the newspaper.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says wrong-site surgeries are “vivid and terrifying errors” that can signal underlying problems at hospitals. Last month, another lawsuit asserted a Vanderbilt patient died when an unsupervised resident botched a routine procedure, and a former Vanderbilt nurse was indicted on charges of accidentally administering a lethal dose of a paralyzing drug.

All three alleged incidents took place in 2017.