In November 2007, Rhode Island Hospital hogged the spotlight when the news reported that they operated on the wrong side of the head of an 82-year-old woman. Fortunately, they weren’t too far into the operation before they realized their mistake.
However, this wasn’t the first time it happened in the same healthcare facility. Before this, there were two other incidents, one of which might have resulted in the death of an 86-year-old male.
If that isn’t enough to concern anyone, operating on the wrong side of the body occurs in thousands each year. According to 2006 data—because, interestingly, this problem is not comprehensively studied—at least 1,500 of these incidents happen annually in the United States.
Wrong-side surgeries are often grounds for medical malpractice, especially if they result in more complications and even death of the patient. That’s why anyone who experiences it may need to reach out to professionals like a brain injury lawyer to get sound advice.
A civil lawsuit may allow the patient and/or their family to receive damages or claims that can cover healthcare expenses, job or salary loss, and other finances.
But it’s also just as important to understand why wrong-sided surgeries can happen in the first place.
1. Human Error
As the saying goes, to err is human. People, including trained and veteran healthcare professionals, are prone to errors. This explains why the law requires them to have medical malpractice insurance and hospitals pay high retainer fees to law firms.
However, human errors can happen for a variety of reasons. One is overconfidence. Take, for example, the case of a 76-year-old man.
The old man found himself in the hospital because of his history of confusion and weakness on the right side of his body. An imaging test revealed that he had a chronic subdural hematoma, which means blood was pooling a side of his brain. Doctors needed to relieve the pressure.
During the operation, though, only the senior and junior residents were present and performed the procedure. They didn’t inform any of the neurosurgical staff. The ones who operated on him discovered the problem only when they didn’t find the hematoma when they opened the skull.
The good news is it ended well. They were able to correct their mistake right away, and the patient walked away with no complications. However, overconfidence could have cost a life, particularly since they failed to ask any neurosurgeon to be present during the procedure.
Human error may also happen because of fatigue. Usually, surgeries last for two to three hours, but complex ones may span for 6 to even 12 hours. But even if these operations are short, surgeons may need to perform a lot of them daily, especially if the healthcare facility is short-staffed.
It is not surprising that many of them suffer from terrible exhaustion. In a 2012 study, almost 50 percent of the residents who participated said they experienced fatigue during their waking hours. Nearly 30 percent, meanwhile, claimed impairment or lower mental effectiveness.
Further, the average sleep surgeons got was 5.3 hours. A regular adult may need at least 7 hours to function optimally, according to the CDC. Thus, fatigue may increase the risk of medical errors by as much as 22% among tired residents compared to well-rested ones.
2. Discrepancies and Errors in Tests
Before any patient undergoes surgery, they go through a battery of tests. The results are helpful in determining the overall condition of the person, including whether they are fit to undergo the procedure. Unless it is an emergency, the doctor may suggest therapies like medication before the elective surgery.
The test results can also help surgeons plan the right course of action, including who will make up the surgery team. They can even estimate the outcome—whether the surgery will eventually treat or only delay the progression of the disease.
But not all tests can be accurate. For example, the imaging results might be either false positive or false negative. This is quite common in breast ultrasounds. While the machines are advanced, they may not be enough for women with dense breast tissues as the ultrasound may not catch a mass.
In a 2006 research on wrong-site events in Florida, a huge number occurred in the radiology department. It could be they scanned the wrong body part, or they mislabeled the problem area.
While wrong-sided surgeries can occur, there’s also a good reason health experts call them never events: they shouldn’t have happened at all. In other words, they are completely preventable. But preventing it demands changes in policies and improvement in healthcare staff welfare, among others.