Medical Blunders
Posted on 05. Jul, 2010 by LynThomas in Health, Society
When surgeons make an ‘oops’ it can have devastating results.
American Dr Jayant Patel was sentenced to seven years in jail in Australia, for causing the deaths of three patients and grievous bodily harm to another. Patel has also been linked to up to a total of 17 deaths between 2003 and 2005. He is believed to have performed the wrong surgery on the wrong people. Patel was disciplined for ‘gross negligence’ in the United States. He will be able to apply for parole in three-and-a-half years.
Doctors in Vienna amputated the wrong leg of a 91 year-old woman, then were forced to cut off her other leg also. The hospital refused to say if the doctor was still working for them. An investigation is under way.
Peruvian doctors amputated the healthy leg from an 86 year-old man in error, in January 2010. The man had a badly ulcerated leg, which required amputation. He too lost his other leg.
In 2008 a 48 year-old woman, Sithy Nazeera, woke to find her healthy leg had been removed by surgeons at the Negombo General Hospital. Nazeera had been booked in to clean a wound in the sole of her foot. The patient waiting for amputation was the next in line for surgery.
The authorities tried to hush the incident up, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission, as no report had been made to the police and no investigation done.
In 1995 51 year-old, diabetic Willie King, woke up to find that surgeons in a Florida hospital had accidentally amputated his healthy foot instead of the one with gangrene.
In 2006 a report revealed that medical blunders were on the increase, with wrong body parts being removed, that ranged from the wrong leg, the wrong hips being taken, a wrong set of lungs transplanted, a child mistakenly circumcised, to a wrong testicle being removed and a woman given a hysterectomy in error.
According to a Sentinel Event Report 90 patients died, or experienced serious harm, as a result of care they received in public or private hospitals during the 2008/09 period, in West Australian hospitals. This was double the errors reported two years before. Health Minister Daniel Andrews, said work had started on an appropriate monitoring system to be in place by 2010.
Compensation payouts to victims rose 100% in 2005/2006 alone. Studies place the direct and indirect costs of malpractice as between 5-10% of total medical costs. Payouts range from $100,000 to several million.
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[...] Jayant Patel an American doctor, was sentenced to seven years in jail in Australia, for causing the deaths of three patients and permanent damage to another. Patel has been linked to up to a total of 17 deaths between 2003 and 2005. He is believed to have performed the wrong surgery on the wrong people. Patel was disciplined for ‘gross negligence’ in the United States. He will be able to apply for parole in three-and-a-half years. Read how surgeons mistakes cause wrong legs to be amputated, even wrong lungs transplanted… [...]