Surgeon removed wrong kidney from cancer patient – but doesn't even receive a warning

In a decision described as "very, very disappointing" by the family of John Heron, who had the wrong kidney removed at Ayr Hospital in 2006, the GMC also decided against issuing Dr Gurun with a warning.

Instead, the GMC panel decided Dr Gurun's misconduct was not serious enough to warrant being struck off and a written warning would be "superfluous".

Last night, Mr Heron, 66, was said by his son to be too angry to speak. His son said his father had hoped the surgeon would have been struck off. The family is suing Ayrshire and Arran NHS Trust over the litany of errors that resulted in Mr Heron having the wrong kidney removed.

John Heron Jnr said: "We are very, very disappointed."

The family's nightmare began in March 2006 when Mr Heron, a garage owner, went into Ayr Hospital to have a cancerous left kidney removed. He said he told doctors minutes before the operation that the pain was on his left side and not his right.

However, they had already marked his body with a pen and dismissed his fears – even though they had not seen vital X-rays showing the tumour on his left kidney.

Dr Gurun, the surgeon, should have checked the patient's ultrasound or a CT scan of the abdomen prior to operating. However, when he discovered they were not available, as they should have been, and with the patient already prepped, he decided to push on based on existing paperwork which turned out to be incorrect.

In the paperwork, the patient's symptoms were recorded on the right side. The CT abdomen report, produced by a Dr D Rawlings, consultant radiologist, on 9 January 2006, wrongly indicated that the lesion was in the patient's right kidney, while the GP referral letter from Dr C Hunter had also referred to a right-sided lesion.

These errors were then compounded by a handwritten clinical note made by Mr Krishna, a specialist registrar in urology, referring to a right-sided lesion and confirming that a right-sided kidney operation had been booked.

Despite all these erroneous notes, Dr Gurun admitted that he should not have proceeded without checking the scans himself.

The panel agreed and so found him guilty of "misconduct" and not the lesser charge of "negligence".

However, the GMC decided against striking him off on the grounds that it was a single incident in an "unblemished record" and that he had already been suspended for two years, and has since returned to work on a gradual basis and under strict supervision at Paisley Hospital.

The GMC concluded: "The panel sees any likelihood of recurrence of similar misconduct highly unlikely because of the clear impact that your error has already had upon your professional practices. Deterrence in the form of a written warning is superfluous."

Last night, Dr Ken Ferguson, associate medical director at Ayrshire & Arran NHS, said: "We would like to repeat our sincere apologies to Mr Heron and his family.

"We carried out a thorough investigation at the time of this incident. As a result, we instigated a series of safety steps to ensure that similar errors could not reoccur."