Peruvian doctors amputate wrong leg, then right one

LIMA (Reuters) – Peruvian doctors amputated the healthy leg of an 86-year-old man, then amputated the other leg when they realized their mistake.

“I was shocked when I lifted the sheets and saw they had taken his left leg,” the man’s daughter, Carmen Villanueva, told Peruvian radio station RPP.

“The ulcer was on his right leg and they had to amputate that one too to keep the infection from spreading,” she said.

The Alberto Sabogal Hospital in the coastal district of Callao just north of Lima said it had suspended the doctors involved in the botched surgery for a life-threatening ulcer, pending an investigation.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; writing by Dana Ford; editing by Anthony Boadle)

Reuters Health

Print Version
Tell-a-Friend comments powered by Disqus

RELATED ARTICLES:

Sex and violence may not really sell products   GPs and the Fit for Work scheme   Study shows global warming is unlikely to reduce winter deaths   Academies make recommendations for improving public health   As death rates drop, nonfatal diseases and injuries take a bigger toll on health globally   Designing better medical implants   Single low-magnitude electric pulse successfully fights inflammation   Total annual hospital costs could be reduced by rapid candidemia identification   UTMB develops new online tool for nurses   Online health information - keep it simple!   Your privacy online: Health information at serious risk of abuse   Physician guidelines for Googling patients need revisions