Surgeries on Incorrect Body Parts Give Rise to Medical Malpractice Actions

By Thomas Greer | July 3, 2014

Did you know that despite all of the advances which have been made in modern medicine over the years, surgeons sometimes operate on the wrong part of the body? Unfortunately, it does happen, and it happens more often than you may realize. It is estimated that medical staff in American hospitals operate on the wrong body part between twenty and forty times each week.

Recently, a Texas man was scheduled to have one of his kidneys surgically removed because it was cancerous. Surgeons misread the patient’s pathology report, and they removed his healthy kidney instead of the cancerous one. The man later underwent another surgery, to remove part of the cancerous kidney.

The patient, Glenn Hermes, now suffers from limited kidney function. It is not yet clear whether dialysis, a kidney transplant, or expensive treatments are required at this point in time. If they are not needed now, very well could be in the future. Concern over what type of treatments he will need and when often trouble Hermes, who is doing his best to maintain a positive attitude despite the fact that his kidney could fail at any time.

The patient has estimated that the damages that he has suffered due to the surgical error total over a million dollars, and he has filed a medical malpractice action against both his urologist and a radiologist who was involved in the mix-up. Wrong body part surgeries are part of a group of medical errors which are referred to as “never events”, which simply means that they should never happen.

Surgeons and other medical professionals suggest that the procedures which are followed during operations may not contain enough fail-safe measures to prevent cases like this one, where a single error on the part of the radiologist was not caught through a second opinion or built-in double checking procedure, allowing the mistake to carry through all the way to the operating table.

Some things that medical staff could do to prevent similar occurrences of wrong site surgery include having the CT scan checked by a second person to verify the location of the cancer and having the urologist verify the location of the cancer through a physical exam. Pre and post operation checklists were once believed to be an effective tool for preventing surgical errors, but later data has shown that they are not as useful as they were once believed to be. A Toronto doctor has developed a promising tool for holding doctors responsible for what goes on in the operating room. The technology functions as a “black box” for the operating room, which captures both audio and visual data that can be reviewed later on. Proponents of the technology, which is not in widespread use at this time, say that it could lead to early detection of surgical errors so that they can be remedied promptly, reducing the harm to the patient. Opponents argue that it would just create more staff for surgeons and others in the operating room, and would result in unproductive finger-pointing.

If you or someone that you love has been injured by a wrong-site surgery or some other form of medical malpractice, it is essential that you get help from a Memphis Medical Malpractice Attorney right away. The knowledgeable Tennessee Medical Malpractice Attorneys at Bailey & Greer, PLLC are here to help you. We believe that the victims of medical negligence deserve top quality legal representation. To learn more about how we can help you, please call us at 901-680-9777 to schedule a time to discuss your case.  At Bailey & Greer, PLLC, we are small enough to care, big enough to fight, and experienced enough to win.

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