Surgeons perform erroneous anal surgery
A 78-year-old woman in a German hospital for leg surgery underwent an unnecessary operation on her anus instead. The surgical team at Münchberg's Hochfranken-Klinik apparently made a mistake, installing a prosthetic anal sphincter on the wrong patient. From USA Today:
(German newspaper Frankenpost) says some members of the surgical team have been punished in connection with the series of mistakes that led them to operate on the wrong patient.Link to USA Today, Link to Frankenpost (German language)
Prosecutors are said to be looking into the incident. As for the unidentified patient, she still needs knee surgery and plans to file a lawsuit.
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Always write on yourself with a Sharpie exactly what you need done before going under general anesthetic for surgery. "Mislabeled cargo" is way more prevalent than hospitals dare admit. Worse are drug errors, which I think Dennis Quaid has been the latest to beat that horse.
oh hai, I is surprise prosthetic sphincter LOL
okay, that was in poor taste.
the poor woman!
Can you imagine waking up from anesthesia after an incident like that? (Zzzz... mmmph. Hrmmph. Hey, uh,... doc, something doesn't feel right here.)
She should have written on her anus: do not operate here? There are limits to the sharpy trick.
At least it was an operation to add something, and not remove something. And who knows maybe a prosthetic anus would be awesome to have (In addition to a fat settlement).
Looks like they really tore her a new asshole.
On the plus side, this 78-year-old gal's got her tone back. That baby's TIGHT. Ooh wee!
*waking up from anesthesia* "Wait....why does my ass hurt?!?"
Medical malpractice can be a real pain in the ass.
And the person who was supposed to get the new brown eye got what..?
I hope those doctors really get their...
oh, the hell with it. This one's like shooting fish in a barrel.
Wait. . . where did they put the new prosthetic sphincter? I envision somewhere fun, like on her hand. Just think: you could open the window of your car and fart outside while driving, or hurl crap like Spiderman shoots web (how about a new superhero called "Monekyman"?)
Seriously, Zuzu's right. I've heard the same thing from medical personnel. There are too many cases where the wrong limb gets amputated. When I mail important packages, I put address labels and mailing instructions on several sides, just in case. Why not do that with instructions to the surgeon? Have a friend or relative come in and label you all over with your name, age, what you're in for, and what the surgeon is supposed to be doing to you.
hahaha. another cyborg asshole.
"As for the unidentified patient, she still needs knee surgery and plans to file a lawsuit."
No shit? Of course she still needs knee surgery! My mom just had her hip replaced, it was easier than to let the bone heal itself, bad fracture, but good bone strength. Regardless...the DOCTORS labeled her so they didn't do the wrong one.
When I, a slouching gigglepuss of low repute, read a thread like this, and I see the link called "Discuss" at the bottom, I feel like a basset hound dreaming about huge fat squirrels drifting by in NFL slo-mo with "Bite Me" signs around their necks.
I didn't even know there was such a thing as a prosthetic anal sphicter. You learn something new every day on BoingBoing. :)
The news media as of late has been all over problems like this in hospitals. The sad thing is- if she were in a US hospital and this happened- she would still have to PAY for the surgery and the prosthetic, at least until she started calling lawyers.
and thank you blackbird for the summation:
"No shit? Of course she still needs knee surgery!"
although an exclamation point instead of a question mark.
Not all posts need a little graphic to head it. This one, for example.
Man, she needed unnecessary surgery like she needed a new asshole.
I work in an OR and if this happened in my OR HEADS WOULD ROLL. We verify the procedure so often with both the doctor and the patient before we do anything that they (the doctor and patient) get annoyed with us. However, I'm now going to start addressing the new anus issue with my patients. I may even see if I can add it to the pre-op charting. I envision a little check box that says "Patient requires new anus yes/no" and having the nurses ask about it. "So I see your having foot surgery today. Would you like a new anus with that?"
When I had knee surgery, part of the pre-op procedure (besides asking me repeated times which knee I was being operated on) was to hand me a sharpie and have me (not them) write my initials on the knee in question.
I worked in a really good hospital where the doctor who was going to perform the surgery (or a member of the surgical team) talked you through signing your surgical consent. That meant that the person with the knife had met you and discussed your condition with you. I have since discovered that, in most cases, the op consent signing is done by a nurse or minor functionary, meaning that the person with the knife may never have met you or met you three months previously. Do not let them take you to surgery if you have not spoken to the surgeon within three days of the procedure. When you're a patient, you're meat. Make sure that you're at least fresh meat.
That's just nasty. I didn't need to hear about that!
:)
Is the word out yet that boingboing coment threads are the funniest sites on the internet? You guys are fucking FUNNY! 'Would you like new anus with that?' had me rolling on the floor for ten minutes.
Darn! I had a really good comment about the doctors' ability to tell things apart if only it had been her elbow instead of her knee that needed work.
Rectum? Hell we damn near killed her.
I get the impression that in America (and apparently in Germany as well), surgeons do not actually meet their patients before cutting them open. What kind of butcher shops do you run over there anyway?
I've had a few surgeries in the years past. Even in a developing country like Malaysia, my surgeons recognize me by face, and knows me by name. I've met them at least once (usually a few times) before the day of the surgery. A nurse will check my name, the kind of surgery, and which body part is being operated on.
But all these checks are besides the point. My surgeon recognize me by face, and he/she knows even better than me what kind of operation I am having, on which part of my body, and why I need it. I do not understand how is it possible for the surgeon to do the wrong surgery on the wrong patient.
It's like a parent who goes to school to pick up his kid to send to tuition class, but picks up the wrong kid by mistake and sends her to the wrong class in the wrong place of town.