One of the last things anyone wants to hear after a surgical procedure is that the surgeon removed the wrong organ–but unfortunately for one patient in Pennsylvania that was exactly the case.
In 2013, 54-year-old Steve Haines went to a urologist because he was experiencing constant pain in his right testicle for 15 years. According to the Washington Post, an ultrasound revealed that the testicle atrophied, with scarring and damage due to an injury the man sustained. To remedy the problem Haines had an orchiectomy–a surgical procedure that would remove the testicle, and thus eliminate Haines’ pain. But instead of removing the testicle Haines’ complained about, Dr. V. Spencer Long who performed the surgery somehow confused the two and removed the healthy one.
“At this point it appeared that the left testicle and cord may actually have been removed instead of the right one,” the surgeon, Valley Spencer Long, wrote in a postoperative report, according to court records, the Post reported.
The patient filed a medical malpractice lawsuit, not against the Dr. Long but also against J.C Blair Memorial Hospital in Pennslyvania where he received the surgery. Fast forward four years later, a Pennslyvania jury arrived at a verdict last week, which awarded Haines $870,000– $620,000 for pain and suffering and $250,000 in punitive damages, as they found that the doctor’s actions were “recklessly indifferent.”
The patient’s lawyer, Braden Lepisto, told the Post that “the award was completely justified,” given the evidence that was presented and the effect the incident had on his client. “The doctor gave an explanation that really made no anatomical or medical sense,” Lepisto said. “Essentially, the doctor claimed that the testicles had switched sides at some point.”
The hospital had no additional comments on the matter but told the Post that Dr. Long was no longer working for the hospital.
A more recent case of wrong-site surgery was in 2014 when a Texas man filed a lawsuit against his urologist and radiologist for malpractice and gross negligence. The surgeons were supposed to remove his cancerous kidney but instead, they removed his healthy kidney.
The occurrence of wrong-site surgery is extremely rare. According to a 2006 analysis of wrong-site surgery, of nearly three million operations between 1985 and 2004, the rate of wrong-site surgery was 1 in 112,994. The analysis noted that the Joint Commission’s Universal Protocol might have been responsible for preventing only 62 percent of the cases reviewed. A protocol enacted to prevent wrong site, wrong procedure, and wrong person surgeries include performing what is called a “time-out” before beginning surgery. This refers to a period of time before the operation, which is used to ensure that all operating room personnel are familiar with the patient, the procedure, their role and how to respond to complications.
In a 2007 study regarding this protocol, respondents were surveyed regarding their perception of the risk of wrong-site injury before and after timeout sessions. Respondents felt that teamwork improved and the overall risk of wrong-site surgery decreased, according to the Study.
Wrong site, wrong procedure, and wrong patient errors( known as WSPEs) are also termed never events, which refers to errors that should never occur, and errors that point out serious underlying safety problems. In February 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that hospitals will not be reimbursed for any costs associated with WSPEs.
The event of having the wrong procedure was traumatizing for Haines’ and because of that he has avoided seeking further medical treatment “He really is just extremely fearful of trying to get any sort of treatment for it at this point because of what happened,” his lawyer told the Post. If he was to have the remaining testicle removed he would need to undergo lifelong testosterone replacement therapy.
