Doctor fined for amputating wrong leg of patient

[left-of-center2012]

A surgeon in Austria has been fined after amputating the wrong leg of a patient earlier this year. The elderly patient's right leg was removed instead of his left, with the mistake only discovered two days later.

On Wednesday, the court in Linz found the 43-year-old guilty of gross negligence and fined her €2,700 ($3,056). The widow of the patient, who died before the case came to court, was also awarded €5,000 ($5,660) in damages.

The patient attended the clinic in Freistadt last May to have his leg amputated but the surgeon marked the wrong limb for amputation, AFP news agency reports. The mistake was identified during a routine bandage change and the patient was told he would have to have his other leg amputated as well.

The hospital said the incident had occurred as a
"result of a sequence of unfortunate circumstances".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59498082

[magicarpet]

1. ... due to unfortunate circumstances...

.... I guess the fuck ya !

[BlackSkimmer]

2. I don't understand this unless the patient was unaware when they were "marking the limb."

When I went in for shoulder surgery, they came in WITH my doc to mark the shoulder. Asked me if this was the correct shoulder. I remember joking that I’d thought about drawing an arrow.

I’ve had a few surgeries in my time, and this is an old phobia for me. How horribly awful.

Inexcusable.

[milestogo]

4. I worked for a surgeon and he carried a marker with him when he made rounds.

He did do amputations. If it were me, I would write THIS ONE on the limb myself.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. I had some minor work done on a shoulder. My left shoulder had markers "this one. cut here.

My right shoulder had words like "no, not here, the other shoulder'

They covered the bases pretty well.

[BlackSkimmer]

9. Love it!

I hate these wrong limb stories.

[Retrograde]

6. When I had hand surgery

the prep nurse handed me the marker and asked me to draw an X on the one that was supposed to be operated on. And when I had more serious surgery pre-Covid at least six people on the team asked me to confirm just exactly what I was in for. Mistakes do happen, and well-run hospitals try their best to minimize them.

[BlackSkimmer]

10. Yes, terrifying to think about. nt

[LisaL]

11. Patient is described as elderly.

Maybe patient had dementia.

[msongs]

3. jail time would be fine nt

[Swede]

7. I always thought they put a big " X " on apendage that was to be amputated.

Awful thing.

[struggle4progress]

8. Check. Always double-check in case everybody forgot to check.

And always triple-check in case everybody forgot to double-check

It's really never a good idea to get in a hurry

[lame54]

12. Measure twice cut once