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Man claims hospital forget to remove appendix during appendectomy

William McCormack awoke from an operation to be told his appendix had been removed - which should have been taken out months before

Heather Saul
Saturday 12 April 2014 09:19 EDT
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Man sues hospital who allegedly forgot to remove appendix during appendectomy
Man sues hospital who allegedly forgot to remove appendix during appendectomy (JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD/AFP/Getty Images))

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A man is suing a hospital for allegedly forgetting to remove his appendix during an appendectomy in 2013.

William McCormack said he was taken into hospital during a trip away at Lake Placid with stomach pains in March.

Doctors who operated on him there told him afterwards they had removed his appendix – which should have been taken out during an appendectomy months before.

Instead of removing the actual appendix, lawyers for Mr McCormack allege Lawrence Hospital Centre removed “a three centimetre, yellowish mass”, according to CBS local.

Mr McCormack, 43, claims no-one told him about the yellowish mass or that his appendix had not been removed and is suing the hospital and surgeon Dr Michael Kerin for unspecified damages.

“We have an operative report from Lawrence Hospital saying that the appendix was removed,” Mitchell Baker, Mr McCormack’s lawyer said.

“Most importantly, we have the pathology report from Lawrence Hospital after the first operation which says what was presented to the pathology department was not the appendix.

“The main question I have is did anyone read the pathology report or did they ignore it?”

The hospital has not yet commented on the claims.

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