Japanese woman in her 50s left incapacitated, unable to breathe after surgeon mistakenly removes healthy brain tissue instead of benign tumour

A Japanese woman in her 50s was left unable to breathe after a surgeon removed healthy tissue from her brain by mistake, instead of a benign tumour.

According to Japanese media TV Asahi, the error was committed by surgeons at Kyoto University Hospital in July 2026.

The woman is now unable to breathe on her own, and requires management with a ventilator, Sankei reported.

What happened?

Prior to the surgery, the woman had been experiencing dizziness and unsteadiness, although she was able to go about her life as per normal.

To prevent these symptoms from worsening, she decided to undergo a craniotomy, which took about 10 hours.

Three doctors were present during the surgery, with the lead surgeon being a man with over 20 years of experience in neurosurgery, as well as around a hundred such surgeries under his belt.

TV Asahi reported that this doctor performed tests twice during the surgery to determine if the removed tissue was a tumour.

Despite the results failing to confirm that the removed tissue belonged to the tumour, he continued with the surgery.

Following the surgery, the woman did not gain consciousness or resume breathing on her own.

An MRI scan subsequently revealed that the tumour remained while the woman had sustained damage to the area where the respiratory centre is located, Sankei further reported.

She is currently able to respond to question to questions by opening and closing her eyes, but is unable to breathe spontaneously. Treatment will continue to assess the possibility of her recovery.

The hospital's neurosurgery department later stated that it believed there had been an error in judgement.

When asked if the incident was due to overconfidence stemming from experience, Yoshiteru Ara, the Chief of Neurosurgery at Kyoto University Hospital replied, "I think so."

At a press conference, the hospital director, Akifumi Takaori, apologised, saying they would provide the woman with the best possible treatment, as well as investigate this incident to prevent reoccurrences.