Personal Injury Law

Surgeon Operates on Wrong Body Part

By Kirk Bernard, Esq.

A surgeon in Orange County, California, operated on the wrong part of a child's body this week, according to a news report. According to a news report in The Orange County Register, this is the Children's Hospital of Orange County's third such surgical error in the last four years. The child was set to undergo a procedure to loosen a small fold of tissue behind the upper lip. What the surgeon did was to loosen the tissue underneath the child's tongue.

According to The Joint Commission, which monitors hospital safety and quality across the country, nearly 120 wrong-site surgeries took place nationwide just in 2008. The error at this particular hospital occurred in spite of safety procedures that were put in place after two prior wrong-site surgeries. In January 2006, a child had to undergo additional surgery after the surgeon cut into the wrong side of the child's skull. In June 2007, the surgeon inserted tubes into both of the child's ears instead of only the right ear. Wrong-site surgery is in fact the most common surgical error that occurs and most often, it is because of a breakdown in communication among the surgical team or between the surgeon and the patient or his or her family members.

Full post as published by Seattle Injury Blog on February 03, 2010 (boomark / email).