It is amazing the trust we put in doctors and hospitals and things like this happen! I hope she is awarded lots of money and she can get her leg operation.
QUOTE |
A German retiree is taking a hospital to court after she went in for a leg operation and got a new anus instead, the Daily Telegraph is reporting. The woman woke up to find she had been mixed up with another patient suffering from incontinence who was to have surgery on her sphincter. The clinic in Hochfranken, Bavaria, has since suspended the surgical team. Now the woman is planning to sue the hospital. She still needs the leg operation and is searching for another hospital to do it. |
I think all hospitals in general, need to exercise caution when it comes to dealing with patients. These are human beings who are putting their own lives into the hands of people, who are supposed to be competent at their jobs. You cannot afford to make ridiculous mistakes like this. I hope this "mix up" at the hospital does not put this poor lady's health at risk! Doctors need to spend more time on focussing on the well being of their patients and not how much money they could get by over booking patients, who are scheduled for surgery.
Rather off topic, but... This incident reminds me of a case which took place in Port of Spain General hospital over a decade ago. An elderly woman had diabetes and always kept her appointment at the hospital, whenever she needed a check up or an insulin shot. One day an intern administered her insulin shot and I am not sure what happened but whatever he did, her left leg began to swell. When she returned to the hospital, the doctors informed this poor lady that she had gangrene and unfortunately, amputation of the leg was necessary. So the poor old lady went under the knife and died. How did she die you may ask? Well whoever performed the surgery, amputated the wrong leg and as a result of this, the gangrene became so severe, it was too late to schedule another surgery! My question is, how could anyone not be able to tell the difference between a healthy leg and a gangrene leg? The smell alone and how it looks would give you a clue! Gross incompetence, if you ask me! |
The thing that would bother me even more is if they surigical team did not realize that the sphincter that they were working on was perfectly fine. Seriously, if they think that they really did something good during that surgery, I would definitely want to pull those licenses. If it was not them that realized there was a problem and it was the patient when she woke up, they should lose their licenses. She is getting paid for this regardless and paid well I suspect.
The problem is there are too many people handling one case. Take out all the extras that you have to see when you go to the hospital and that helps big time. That is one of the reasons some people go with private doctors, that way they are sure its the same person seeing to them from start to finish.