A surgeon from the Reims University Hospital operated on a baby on the wrong side. The parents are considering legal action.
Medical errors can also affect babies. In Reims, an eighteen-month-old child was operated on the wrong side, reports the newspaper l’Union. The baby suffered from a right inguinal hernia, but the surgeon carried out his intervention on the left side. In question: an error made on the report of consultation, which he had obviously badly filled.
A few months after his birth, the child, born in January 2016, had developed a lump in the right groin, which became disabling. At Reims University Hospital, doctors diagnosed a strangulated right inguinal hernia – a term that refers to the exit of the intestine from its cavity, which becomes blocked under the abdominal wall.
Operated a second time
Finally, the baby was operated on a second time, the next day, on the good side. The parents are considering legal action, according to the Union. The CHU, which admits its wrongs, has triggered “different devices to analyze the situation and mediate”.
If there are no official data, the number of medical errors is estimated at 450,000 per year; 30 to 50,000 people die from it. The proportion may seem high, but medical errors represent approximately 1% of all medical procedures (450 million per year).
In 2015, these errors gave rise to 60 million euros in compensation to the victims, according to a report by the MACSF, which insures health professionals. Surgical acts represent the first item of compensation.
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