Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Personal Injury Law Blogs -> San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal Injury Law

: San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer

Surgery Gone Wrong

By Beth Janicek

In a blog last week, I discussed Medical Errors. I discussed operating on the wrong body part or the wrong side of the body. Below is a part of my blog:

Organs can be punctured and surgeries can be performed on the wrong body part or wrong side of the body. Although due to past medical negligence claims I think the latter is not happening as frequently. The last time I was with a family member in a hospital setting, every nurse/doctor that came in to examine him asked a series of questions:

1. What is your name?

2. What is your date of birth?

3. What are you having surgery on today?

Well the unthinkable happened again. There was a story this morning on a local San Antonio news station discussing Janie Garza, a poor woman who went into Methodist Ambulatory Hospital for arthroscopic surgery for a tear in her left knee.

Everything seemed to be going well - she was sedated, her leg was prepped and surgery began. When she woke up the doctors even told her everything went great. She then realized things did not go so great. The doctors operated on the wrong knee -- her GOOD knee. She notified the doctors and they took her back into surgery and operated on the knee that was torn.

Garza has filed a medical negligence claim for performing a surgery she didn't need and didn't authorize. She is suing her doctor, Michael Heckman; Orthopedic Knee, Shoulder and Sports Surgery and the two doctors who assisted in the surgery, Scott Overley and Russell McKissick.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Beth Janicek

Full post as published by San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer on August 13, 2008 (boomark / email).