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Woman, 73, has both healthy kidneys removed after being misdiagnosed with cacner

Pedro Marrero
By Pedro Marrero
Jan 16, 2019
01:20 P.M.

Linda Woolley’s life will never be the same after doctors at the University of Colorado Hospital unnecessarily removed both of her kidneys over a wrongful cancer diagnosis. She is considering a lawsuit.

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The 73-year-old grandmother from Englewood, Colorado has become dependent on three weekly four-hour-long dialysis treatment sessions to stay alive until she can be eligible for a transplant, as Fox31 reported.

Back in May, doctors at the aforementioned medical facility performed a surgery on Woolley to remove her kidneys by mistake after a March biopsy showed no evidence of cancer.

Woolley entered the operating room with two healthy kidneys and was left in such a poor condition that she can’t even add her name to the US kidney transplant list.

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"My life was totally changed. Dialysis is no picnic no matter how used to it you get, it robs you of your life."

-Linda Woolley, Fox31, November 15, 2018.

After a second biopsy was conducted following the organs’ removal, “no evidence of carcinoma” as found. Now, thanks to her doctor’s recklessness, she needs at least one new kidney.

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“I feel like they owe me a kidney, that's for sure," says Woolley, who has to wait to be healthy enough to enter the average seven-year-long queue for a transplant and has not even gotten an apology from the hospital.

"It is terrifying because you have no choice when you go into a hospital. You trust that you’re going to be taken care of," added Woolley, who is not even acknowledged as a former patient by the medical center.

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Attorney Jim Leventhal is representing Woolley in a possible lawsuit against the University of Chicago Hospital.

A spokeswoman for the hospital was contacted by Fox31 to ask for clarification on the matter and her sole answer was: "I don't have any information for you about this."

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As outrageous as this case is, it is not something unheard of. Another patient had one of his kidneys removed by mistake only two years before Woolley’s became a victim of medical malpractice.

In April 2016, 53-year-old Maureen Pacheco entered the operating room in order to correct an injury to his spine; however, upon recovering from the anesthesia, she learned that one of her kidneys was missing.

After Pacheco sued the Florida hospital where the surgery took place, a monetary agreement was reached, but the surgeon ever admitted his responsibility in what happened.

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