I know accidents happen, but . . .

 Ya, um... I'd be ticked.  But I wonder if these people are sueing over and above the fine?  I certainly would be.  Sorry if it mentioned it... I didn't manage to read the whole thing.  My computers acting up.

The $50,000 is just the fine for wrong site surgery. It's actually the same fine the hospital gets for leaving a foreign body in. Trust me, it will cost this hospital a LOT more then that, they may even loose their accreditation. It's actually a lot easier then you would think for neurosurgery because you cannot see the abnormality from the outside. You are going off of imaging and if someone puts it up backward and you don't read the name, etc. well then......all hospitals are required to do this time out thing as well as have the patient write YES on the side that the operation is supposed to be on. The time out is done by the circulating nurse who says the patient's name, positioning, what the consent says, antibitics, etc prior to incision after the drapes have been placed. Unfortunately this has happened at almost EVERY hospital in the country, it even happened at mine a few years back when one of the most famous orthopaedic surgeons in the country did a knee replacment on the wrong side. Both needed to be replaced and he was going to do them in a staged fashion but started with the wrong one. It's not a "bad doctor" thing, it's a multi-level swiss cheese theory of errors.

I guess it's better than amputating the wrong leg.

Joyce

 bwah ha ha ha haa ha ha hah.......

fuzzy_dogs_mom

I guess it's better than amputating the wrong leg.

Joyce

Sorry, it's not funny.  But Joyce's comment was. 

Poor person, this just terrible.

 

fuzzy_dogs_mom

I guess it's better than amputating the wrong leg.

 

That is just what I thought. When I had foot surgery in Sept. they asked me like 100 times throughout the day to confirm that it was the left foot they would be operating on. My doctor said, some patients even write on their feet - "NOT THIS FOOT, THE OTHER ONE!" That made me laugh.

 

Pit_Pointer_Aussie

Poor person, this just terrible.

 

fuzzy_dogs_mom

I guess it's better than amputating the wrong leg.

 

That is just what I thought. When I had foot surgery in Sept. they asked me like 100 times throughout the day to confirm that it was the left foot they would be operating on. My doctor said, some patients even write on their feet - "NOT THIS FOOT, THE OTHER ONE!" That made me laugh.

 

Oh man, I'm totally going to do that if I ever have surgery!

I guess this is the sad result of the people doing such complicated procedures actually being human and making mistakes sometimes. You would think, however, after the first 1 or 2 screw-ups you might introduce a few more precautions to avoid a 3rd?

This is nuts and sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.  When my toddler had hernia surgery they asked me three times which side and they WROTE on him. Is there a reason they couldn't write on someone's head? How about their shoulder or ear? "No" on one ear and "yes" on the other---or just a color "green = go"

I can't even order a pay per view movie without confirming the order three times: "do you want to order this movie?"  "Please confirm you want to order this" and "last chance before your account is charged."

Yeah, mistakes happen but enough mistakes have happened that hospitals should have protocols to prevent things like this. We're not talking about boob jobs, this was BRAIN surgery. 

 I get that accidents happen, but really, three times?

When I had hand surgery back in August, I was asked to confirm that it was the right hand, and someone marked it. There was a huge deal about marking my hand before they could do anything. So, I presume someone operated on the wrong side at some point, which is why this policy is now a big deal at that hospital. 

 Hmmm... so writing notes on your person helps in these situations?  maybe the next time i need surgery, I'll leave a note in black sharpie near the sight saying,"Could you throw in a boob job?"

I had a patient write on the wrong leg themselves a few months back. Lucky it was caught, but with the millions of operations that happen a year, it is a rare occurance, except of course at that particular hospital ;)

huskymom

 Hmmm... so writing notes on your person helps in these situations?  maybe the next time i need surgery, I'll leave a note in black sharpie near the sight saying,"Could you throw in a boob job?"

 

If it works for you, please let me know.  I'd love a little different nose!