Wrong Limb Amputation
Doctors are just as capable of making mistakes as any other individual. When a mistake occurs, it can be minor, like leaving the keys in the door or forgetting to turn off a light, or it can be serious. Regardless of the severity of a mistake, doctors are responsible for ensuring that their patients make it into and out of the operating room with minimal complications.
One of the biggest mistakes that any surgeon or doctor can make is removing the wrong limb or appendage during surgery. This means, as the name suggests, that the doctor removes the opposite limb that needs to be removed. So if, for example, the patient is supposed to have his or her right foot removed, the doctor will remove the left foot instead.
Limbs have to be removed for a variety of reasons but one of the most important reasons is gangrene. In individuals who have diabetes, the extremities lose their circulation and so any sores or cuts that develop may not be able to heal due to the lack of blood supply. This allows gangrene to develop in the limb or location and can be very dangerous. To combat gangrene, and to prevent future incidents from occurring, a doctor may recommend or insist that the gangrenous limb be removed.
In surgery, the notes may all say that the right limb needs to be removed but the surgeon may get his or her left and right mixed up while in the operating room. In cases of gangrene and similar ailments, there may not be a whole lot of difference in appearance between the two feet and so the mistake may not be caught until later.
Another example where removing the wrong limb is extremely dangerous is in the case of bone cancer. When cancer is in the actual bone, removing the bone may be the safest way to ensure that the cancer does not come back. Unfortunately, there is frequently not a lot of difference on the outside between the cancerous leg and the healthy leg. When the wrong leg is removed, the bone cancer is permitted to continue growing and also has more of an opportunity to spread to other locations.
Contact a Pennsylvania Surgical Error Lawyer
If you have been the victim of an egregious surgical error, contact the Pennsylvania surgical error lawyers of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. today at 610-667-7511.