Wrong site surgery is a huge issue in America and all around the world. It is one of the most common medical mistakes. Wrong site surgery is when a surgeon goes to perform surgery on a body part, but gets the body part wrong. This can happen in a variety of ways. This can mean anatomically the wrong body part was removed, such as the right hand instead of the left.
This could also occur when the anatomical position is correct, but the specific site is wrong, such as cutting off a wrong finger. And finally, it could also mean that the anatomical position and location are correct, but the wrong surgery is performed, such as connecting a muscle when they should disconnect one. This is a problem that occurs all over the world where surgery is practiced.
A case that took place in the most prestigious hospitals in the state of Rhode Island, which is also credited for being the teaching hospital for students of Brown University, Rhode Island hospital made the mistake of operating on the wrong side of a patient’s brain. This incident occurred three times in one year at this hospital alone. The first incident was the result of failure to mark what side of the brain needed to be operated on. The doctor and nurse in this operation claimed they were not trained in how to use a standardized pre-surgery checklist.
In the second incident, a different doctor whom had over 20 years experience never filled out which side of an 86 year old man’s brain had a blood clot. He told the nurse that he knew which side it was based off of his memory. This resulted in the patient’s death a few weeks later. In the third case, the chief resident neurosurgeon and a nurse both confirmed which side of the brain needed to be operated on before the surgery even started then proceeded to operate on the wrong side. All three cases involved different doctors but were all under the employment of the same hospitals.
Another case of wrong site surgery took place in Rio de Janeiro’s Pedro Ernesto University Hospital in Brazil. A patient with diabetic kidney failure was left completely legless after doctors amputated the wrong limb. Surgeons were supposed to remove the right leg but instead they removed his left leg.
With the left leg already removed, the surgeons had to continue on with the amputation of the right leg to save the man’s life. In this particular case, the hospital is trying to determine if doctors committed a medical error or if they didn’t intend to remove the left leg until they discovered that it too was compromised by the patient’s disease. While there is no conclusion to this malpractice, it is possible that the surgeon who performed the surgery could lose his medical license or the hospital it occurred at could have a large lawsuit.
In Vancouver, A four-year old boy was due to have corrective surgery on his wandering right eye. The intended surgery was suppose to weaken the muscle at the bottom of his right eye which was the cause wandering eye, was only supposed to be a couple of hours long. When the surgeon realized that she mistakenly operated on the left eye, she continued her operation but moved her operation to the right eye without the parents’ consent.
When the surgeon approached the parents of the patient after his surgery, she told the family “she lost her sense of direction during the procedure because a nurse had mistakenly covered the mark she had made on the eye that needed correction while prepping the boy for surgery”. Now, both of the boy’s eyes wander and he has to wear sunglasses outside as the sun irritates his eyes. He also has red marks in the whites of his eyes and has to put drops in three times a day.
Wrong site surgery is a huge issue all over the world. This is a medical mistake that occurs when the wrong part of the body is being operated on. All three cases mentioned above show a mistake done by the surgeon where they operated on the wrong anatomical side of the body. A leg, the brain, and an eye were the three sites. Since these body parts are in twos, it is very easy for the doctors to make a mix-up and operate on the wrong side. This can result for a variety of reasons. The nurses could mark up the wrong side of the body, the patients could be switched around rooms leading to a confusion of who needs what done, or improper identification of the patients can lead to medical error.
This problems needs to be fixed all around the world. This issue is leading to malpractice lawsuits and worst of all fear of patients to even get minor routine surgeries performed. There needs to be a better system in place so this doesn’t occur anymore. Patients need to be properly identified and their spots of surgery need to be more effectively marked. If this issue isn’t quickly resolved, it can lead to disastrous results such as patients losing their ability to perform daily activities as simple as walking or talking.
_Citations_
10 Horrible Cases Of Medical Malpractice – Listverse. (n.d.). _Listverse_. Retrieved June 11, 2014, from http://listverse.com/2013/05/29/10-horrible-cases-of- medical-malpractice/
Patient left legless after mistaken amputation in Brazilian hospital. (2013, October 9) _theguardian.com_. Retrieved June 11, 2014, from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/09/patient-legless-mistaken- amputation-brazilian-hospital
Reporter, D. (n.d.). Surgeon operates on WRONG eye of four-year-old boy . _Mail Online_. Retrieved June 11, 2014, from
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378671/Surgeon-operates- WRONG-eye-year-old-boy.html
Surgical Errors Occur More Than 4,000 Times A Year In The U.S.. (2012, December 22). _Medical News Today_. Retrieved June 11, 2014, from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/254426.php