In an unusual case of medical carelessness, an Indian-origin surgeon named Santusht Perera has been banished from practising for a period of 2 years in New Jersey for removing the wrong lung of a cancer patient eight years ago.

Moreover, the surgeon has also been slapped with USD 81,000 fine for the same.

The New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners said that Dr. Perera removed the right lung of 60-year-old Richard Flagg in September 2000, while the tumor was located in the left lung one.

After that to cover up the mistake, Dr. Perera lied and said that an even larger tumor had been detected in the right lung and hence had to be removed.

Perera also changed the patient’s medical records so as to prove that he intended to operate on the right lung.

The surgical operation of the patient was done at the Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus.

However, a pathology report did not find any cancer tumor in the right lung tissue removed.

The board even stated that the doctor can apply to be reinstated within six months.

Perera’s delinquency prevented Flagg from being properly treated and he died in September 2003.

According to a study by Dr. Chunliu Zhan and Dr. Marlene R. Miller published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in October 2003, medical errors cause up to 98,000 deaths annually in the United States.