Jhelaine Palo | On 30, Apr 2018

Ekaterina Fedyaeva, a patient of a hospital in Ulyanovsk, Russia died because of a medical error in the operating room on April 5, 2018.

Ekaterina Fedyaeva, a 28 year old woman was diagnosed with ovarian cysts (fluid-filled sacs or pockets in an ovary or on its surface.)The majority of ovarian cysts present minor or no discomfort, and  are harmless.

In Fedyaeva’s case, the doctors decided to do a procedure to remove her cysts. Instead of giving her a saline solution, a nurse mistakenly gave her Formaldehyde, a solution containing Formalin. It is a colorless chemical that is used to preserve the dead.

After the doctors spent a long time talking, Fedyaeva was transferred to the Ulyanovsk Regional Clinical Hospital where she went in a comatose condition, which is a state of deep unconsciousness for a prolonged or indefinite period. Afterward, she was moved again to the AI Burnazyan Federal Medical and Biophysical Center of Russia in Moscow. Her doctors believed that there would be a more efficient course of treatment there.

However, despite of all the attempts to keep Fedyaeva alive, she died on April 5th. According to Governor Sergey Morozov of Ulyanovsk, the regional government will be in charge of paying for all the funeral expenses for Fedyaeva. In addition to that, they will also provide assistance and psychological support to her nearest relatives. In addition, the governor revealed “the employees who committed this mistake have been dismissed.”

According to a recent World Health Organization report, over 240 million surgical procedures are performed around the world every year. Approximately 250,000 Americans die each year from medical errors according to a recent Johns Hopkins study.