Here’s a genuine case of medical malpractice. Doc Pays $1.4M for Removing Wrong Ovary | Legal News | Lawyers.com. And it’s even worse than that: when the patient continued to have pain on the side supposedly taken care of, the doctor reviewed the x-rays and even after realizing she’d removed the wrong ovary, did not tell her patient.
It reminds me of part of a pre-op process I went through years ago. My surgeon came into the little cubicle where I sat. He asked me a couple of questions, said a few things, then asked, “Which side am I operating on?”
I laughed. “Gee,” I said, “I figure you should know.” He didn’t laugh back. “We always ask as a double and triple check, just to make sure everyone understands.” And I think the correct side was marked with a Sharpie.
And I remember many, many years ago, long before the profusion of medical malpractice lawsuits, when a friend’s husband had surgery to remove a failing kidney. The surgeon removed the wrong kidney. The poor man was on dialysis for the rest of his life. And I don’t remember that there was any compensatory settlement.