Personal Injury Law

Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Accuses Berwyn Hospital of Conducting Wrong Site Surgery

A man who says he suffered a permanent injury because doctors at a Berwyn hospital operated on the wrong knee has filed a Chicago orthopedic surgery lawsuit. The plaintiff is Krzysztof Kordes. His Illinois medical malpractice complaint, filed in Cook County Circuit Court against Dr. Scott A. Seymore, the Orthopaedic Associates of Riverside, and surgical assistant Lukasz Sidorowicz, is seeking over $50,000 in damages.

Kordes went to McNeal Hospital on May 6, 2008. He was scheduled to undergo a right knee partial lateral meniscectomy, right knee arthroscopy, and right knee ACL reconstruction.

In his Chicago medical malpractice complaint, Kordes claims that Seymore and Sidorowicz made a mistake when they began performing the replacement surgery on his left knee. They operated on the correct knee after they realized that they were performing the procedure on the wrong knee.

Kordes later received a diagnosis of chondromalacia patella on his left knee, which indicates that cartilage under his kneecap was damaged. His Chicago medical malpractice lawsuit is seeking over $50,000 in damages.

Kordes contends that the defendants should have known that they were operating on the wrong knee and that they failed to take steps to prevent the wrong-site error from happening. He claims that the doctor and surgical assistant did not properly document the fact that they started operating on the wrong knee.

Wrong-Site Surgeries
Operating on the wrong organ or limb is considered a wrong-site surgery. According to a study published in 2006 in the Archives of Surgery, out of every 112,994 surgeries that occur (not counting those involving the spine), 1 operation is a wrong-site procedure.

Wrong site surgeries can cause additional pain and suffering for the patient, as well as lead to possible infection and medical complications. There are steps that doctors and other members of the surgical team are supposed to follow to make sure that wrong-site surgeries don?t happen.

Man sues after doctors perform surgery on wrong knee, WBBM, July 29, 2009

'Wrong site' surgeries on the rise, USA Today, April 17, 2009

Related Web Resources:
chondromalacia patella, Mayo Clinic

Wrong-Site Surgery, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

Full post as published by Chicago Injury Attorney Blog on August 04, 2009 (boomark / email).