Wrong leg

[George K]

Jeebus...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/21/health/austria-amputation-wrong-leg-scli-intl/index.html

[LuFins Dad]

And he still has the other leg needing to come off...

But, let’s face it, at his age he was spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair anyway...

[Horace]

It’s ok, he can sell the leg to a wrongly amputated leg fetishist. Those people always get off on the wrong foot.

[jon-nyc]

Fucking hell.

[Mik]

Check and double check.

[mark]

@mik said in Wrong leg:

Check and double check.

Measure twice, cut once.

[George K]

I know of one "wrong-side" procedure done in my neck of the woods. It's a surgeon with whom I worked, but this wasn't at my place. He arthroscoped the wrong knee. This was in the days before everything was checked and double checked.

When the mandates came down, many surgeons objected to how silly it was in some respects (and I have to admit, their points were valid).

For example, "Dr. G, we won't bring your patient with the broken arm into the OR until you mark the side of surgery."

"I did mark it. I put a CAST on that arm."

Or the silliness of putting an "X" on the abdomen when you're going to take out an appendix. How many people have two appendices, and of that cohort, how many wrong-side appendectomies have been done?

But, overall, it's good policy, obviously.

One patient, scheduled for a knee 'scope, came to the hospital with "NO!!!" written, in permanent marker, on her good knee. That's proactive, eh?

[brenda]

@george-k I used a purple Sharpie to write 'Cut here', and I drew a pair of scissors there, too. Mine was just for fun with the docs. They had already used the same Sharpie to draw location marks.

[Loki]

@lufins-dad said in Wrong leg:

And he still has the other leg needing to come off...

But, let’s face it, at his age he was spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair anyway...

To your point:

The patient was suffering from "numerous medical conditions" and ailments affected both his legs.

From a different article:

Austrian news outlet Heute reported that the patient did not initially recognise the mistake, because of his illness. It also said the 82-year-old was asked to confirm beforehand, but his articulation was limited, it reported Fritsch saying.

But yes it is terrible just the same.