Today's Most Popular Video
Oct 22, 2008 10:54 pm US/Central
Man's Surgery Performed On The Wrong Ankle
(WCCO)
-
-
After years of pain from a warehouse work injury, a 57-year old Minneapolis man decided to let doctors fuse his right ankle solidly together. But the surgeon somehow cut into and irreversibly locked together the bones in his healthy left ankle.
CBS
A Minnesota man is permanently disabled because of a medical mistake at a Twin Cities hospital when a surgeon operated on the wrong body part. Surgical mistakes like that happened more than 200 times in Minnesota over the last five years.
"In 2008, this is one of those things that really just should not happen," said the patient's attorney Reid Rischmiller.
After years of pain from a warehouse work injury, a 57-year old Minneapolis man, who didn't want to be identified, decided to let doctors fuse his right ankle solidly together. His surgeon even signed the ankle with permanent marker moments before the operation last month.
Yet still, the surgeon somehow, cut into and irreversibly locked together the bones in his healthy left ankle.
"We can't have this happen again. It's devastating for the patient and for our staff," said HealthEast Medical Director Robert Beck, M.D.
Beck is the medical director for all of HealthEast's Hospitals, including St. John's in Maplewood, Minn., where the operation took place. He said any one of the operating room staff could have spoken up and prevented the error.
"Over time people can get a little lax and we think that's probably what had happened," Beck said.
In reviewing this case, Beck said every person in that operating room did exactly what they were supposed to do according to safety procedures. And yet, he said, they didn't take those procedures seriously enough.
"In this particular case, obviously, that process broke down," Beck said.
Five weeks after the mistake, the patient now faces the fusion of his other ankle. His attorney said it's a reminder to double-check every detail.
"Or to have some family member, close friend with them at virtually every step along the way," said Rischmiller.
Neither the patient nor the hospital is naming the surgeon right now, because of an ongoing investigation. However, he does not work for HealthEast.
The patient is going to need to learn to walk again because both of his ankles will be frozen in place.
While the man had the correct ankle marked, some patients mark their own bodies with permanent marker notes like, DON'T CUT HERE! It's important to ask doctors to make sure
their marks are still visible after the area is prepped and wrapped up for surgery.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Letters To Santa Sent To Sex Offender?
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
