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Letter: Surgeon's slip

Published 22 January 2000

From Linda Shields

Nancy Scheper-Hughes’s article about organ transplantation was disturbing
(18 December 1999, p 48).
However, in the opening paragraph, she describes a woman
who found a kidney missing after removal of an ovarian cyst.

I find it difficult to imagine how anyone could remove a kidney (from behind
the rib cage, and not in the abdomen) while operating on an ovary, which lies
inside the lower part of the abdominal cavity.

South Brisbane, Queensland

Issue no. 2222 published 22 January 2000

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