“Med Student has wrong site surgery that has impacted her ability to conceive” was the title of an email I received today.
It was from a press person who represents a medical malpractice lawyer, Andrew Slutkin, whose client had the wrong ovary removed in surgery.
The case, as described by the release, is heart-wrenching: In September 2009, Nadege Neim, a 28-year-old medical student, went to St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, MD to have her left ovary removed. Instead, the doctor removed the right, healthy ovary. This is called “wrong-site” surgery and is classified as a “never” event, because, it should never happen in a hospital.
At hospitals there are a number of steps that are supposed to be taken before surgery to eliminate wrong-site surgery mistakes. One that is required is called a “time out”, where a surgeon, anesthesiologist, and nurses in the operating room stop what they are doing before opening up a patient. They are then all supposed to communicate with one another and agree that the correct part of the body and organ are being operated on.
Despite this requirement, wrong-site surgeries are still happening – as many as 40 times a week, according to this Washington Post story from June 2011.
What is amazing is that this happened to a med student. “If it can happen to a medical student … it can happen to anyone,” said Slutkin, whose law firm Silverman Thompson Slutkin & White, is representing Neim. “It’s every woman’s worst nightmare.”
This is why its so important to do research on your local hospitals – for instance, look at Hospital Compare.
