An 82-year-old man had the wrong leg amputated. An error deemed “tragic” by the clinic, which points to a “series of unfortunate circumstances”.
- An 82-year-old Austrian patient had his right leg amputated, instead of the left leg.
- An investigation is underway within the clinic to determine the reasons for this medical error.
One in ten patients experience adverse effects while receiving hospital care, according to theWorld Health Organization (WHO). This is what happened to an 82-year-old Austrian on May 18. This patient had to have his left leg amputated. However, two days later, during a bandage change, the medical teams realized that it was the one on the right that had been operated on. Clinic Freistadt, Austria, called the mistake “tragic” in an official press release. “We need to find out how this failure, this mistake, could have happened.explained Norbert Fritsch, the medical director of the clinic, during a press conference relayed by the newspaper The Guardian. I would like to publicly apologize here“.
An investigation is underway within the clinic
According to the first information available, the error would have been made when the leg was marked as having to be operated on. This act occurs well before the surgical intervention. “Unfortunately, the error (…) occurred as a result of a series of unfortunate circumstances“, continued Norbert Fritsch. An internal investigation has been launched in order to understand all the reasons for this medical error and not to reproduce it again.
According to the WHO, in 50% of cases, the harm suffered by patients when they receive care in hospital could be avoided. Thus, the director of the Freistadt clinic assured that according to the results of the investigation, the operating standards should be changed within his establishment to limit the risk of errors. As for the patient, the health establishment has obviously made psychological assistance available to him. The latter, suffering from several pathologies, should again be amputated in the coming months to remove the leg initially planned.
Limb amputation: various causes
Amputation is a surgical operation that aims to remove part of a limb, when doctors believe that the affected area is too dangerous for the health of the patient. The causes of an amputation can be very different: insufficiency or high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, bone infection, accidents, etc. After the operation, patients may experience two types of pain. The first are at the level of the stump, the residual limb after the operation. The second affects the entire missing limb of the body and is caused by nerves that have been severed. In most cases, the operation goes well and a prosthesis replaces the amputated limb.
According to the Federation of Diabetics, in France, nearly 10,000 amputations are due to diabetes each year.
