Story highlights Patient says surgeons removed section of seventh rib instead of eighth

Yale hospital admits "an error was made"

Lawsuit accuses surgeon of trying to cover up the mistake

(CNN) A patient has filed a lawsuit against Yale New Haven Hospital for allegedly removing part of the wrong rib during surgery and then trying to cover up the mistake.

Deborah Craven, 60, had surgery last year to remove part of her eighth rib because of a precancerous lesion -- but instead, doctors removed part of her seventh rib, according to the complaint filed in Connecticut Superior Court. She had to undergo a second surgery to remove the correct portion, the complaint said.

"We recognized that an error was made, we informed and apologized to the patient, and we immediately reported it to the Connecticut Department of Health," according to the statement Yale issued last week.

But Craven's lawyer said she never received such an apology and said one of her surgeons tried to cover up the mistake.

The mistake was discovered when Craven complained of pain after her surgery on May 18. An X-ray was performed, and Dr. Anthony Kim, an assistant professor of surgery at Yale, informed Craven and her husband that the wrong rib had been removed, according to Craven's lawyer, Joel Faxon.

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