How unprofessional can professionals be these days? There have been several news reports pouring in regarding neuro surgeons performing surgeries on the wrong side of brain. Do they read case history before operating on the patient or even try to understand the problem.
A 82 year old patient was operated on the wrong side of his brain at a hospital in Rhode Island. I don’t think that the doctor identified his horrifying mistake until somebody pointed out to him post surgery. Luckily, the patient is OK but what is not OK is that the patient needs to undergo an operation on the correct side. Luckily for the patient, there is a good chance that the doctors will operate on the correct side as the surgery marks should be clearly visible on the wrong side.
All that the authorities can do is fine the hospital for this blatant mistake. If I am the one in charge, I would have probably suspended the hospital license and also the surgeon’s. Hospitals can cough up money as fine and can make multiple fold within months.
Here are some other instances of wrong side surgeries:
In February, a different doctor performed neurosurgery on the wrong side of another patient’s head, said Andrea Bagnall-Degos, a health department spokeswoman. That patient was also OK, she said.
In August, however, a patient died a few weeks after a third doctor operated on the wrong side of his brain. The death prompted the state to order the hospital to take a series of steps to ensure such a mistake would not happen again, including an independent review of its neurosurgery practices and better verification from doctors of surgery plans.
What would you have done if you were authorized to take action?
via AOL


