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41 Cases of Surgeons Operating on the Wrong Body Part

By Beth Janicek

A consumer and patient advocacy group, OKWatchdog said Friday that is has found at least 41 instances between 1988 and 2003 in which Oklahoma physicians operated on the wrong body part. These cases were found by analyzing a federal database of medical malpractice insurance payments. Existing data on wrongful surgeries is hard to analyze, therefore it is hard to say whether actual incidence is going up or down.

The group's executive director, Jeff Raymond said, 'If this many Oklahomans have been injured by surgeons cutting into the wrong spot, think how many more are injured by less obvious forms of medical malpractice.' He also said that wrong-site surgery is among 28 medical errors experts say should never happen.

One example is the case of Julie Kennedy, the mother of nine children, who took her surgeon to court after he operated on the wrong foot in 1999. Kennedy sought to remove a bone chip in her left foot that was causing her pain. Instead the surgeon operated on her good right foot, causing Kennedy to experience pain in that foot ever since. Kennedy reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum.

This isn't the first time I've blogged about Medical Errors and wrong-site surgeries. In August of 2008, I commented on a story out of San Antonio, Surgery Gone Wrong, discussing Janie Garza, a woman who went into the hospital for arthroscopic surgery for a tear in her left knee. After waking from her surgery she realized that the doctor operated on her wrong knee. When the doctor was notified he took her back into surgery and operated on the knee that was torn.

According to the Join Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) there are no good excuses for surgical errors. JCAHO attributed communication breakdowns between surgical team members and the patient and family as a possible root cause of the alarming statistics. Other contributing causes include a failure to require clear marking of the surgical site, failure to verify the procedure in the operating room, and incomplete patient assessments.

In spring of 2001, VHA Inc., a nationwide network of community-owned healthcare organizations and hospitals, began a program aimed at preventing surgical errors. Known as the 'Seven Absolutes,' the VHA programs set seven minimum standards hospitals should consider in preventing surgical errors. The program includes measures such as scheduling surgery with a 'right or left' designation and advocates marking the surgical site.

About two years ago I had surgery, and every person that I came into contact with asked me three questions: 1. What is your name; 2. What is your date of birth; 3. What procedure are you having today? In addition to asking these three questions they marked both sides of my body in order to ensure that they operated on the right side. Guidelines are different for every hospital you go to, but if doctors and nurses followed these simple steps, I am sure that the amount of wrong-site surgeries would drastically decrease.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Beth Janicek

Full post as published by San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer on April 28, 2009 (boomark / email).