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South Korean doctors erroneously removed part of the stomach of a patient who was originally due to have thyroid surgery, while removing the thyroid gland of another scheduled for stomach surgery, a hospital official said on Monday.

The surgical blunder occurred at Konyang University Hospital in the city of Taejon, about 150 km (95 miles) south of Seoul and involved two women in their sixties who were both in for surgery the same day, hospital spokesman Kim Man-sik said.

Medical staff found out about the goof-up which took place on December 29, only after they were filing paperwork on the two women, he said.

Doctors later rectified their mistake by performing the correct surgical procedures on both women and re-attaching the part of the stomach they had removed from the patient with the thyroid problem, Kim said.

At present both are recovering from their respective operations, he said.