A cardiac surgeon is being sued after using the wrong films during surgery:
The surgeon, Dr. Lit Fung of Modesto, told Gary Baumgartner he had sensed something was wrong near the end of the surgery and went to the catheterization lab, where he learned the mix-up had happened. Before the surgery, a hospital employee had loaded the angiogram films of a different patient into the operating room computer.
(via The Medical Quack)
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{ 13 comments }
What compelled Dr. Fung to not own up to his mistake? The likely answer is that contrary to the ridiculous blather on this site, there is no malpractice crisis except in the fevered imaginations of physicians. He knew (maybe only subconsciuosly) that the system favors those who can’t/won’t admit their mistakes. In fairness, that’s true of the weork world in general and not just the medical community.
re: “What compelled Dr. Fung to not own up to his mistake?”
Reading for comprehension is not your strong suit elliot.
From the article:
In the same room at Memorial Medical Center, her surgeon was talking with her husband about something unusual that had happened during the surgery a few days earlier.
Her husband, Gary Baumgartner, couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The surgeon said he had operated on his wife while using a different patient’s angiogram films
The point is elliot he admitted his mistake you are saying he did not own up to the mistake. Just who is stupid?
I deleted my comment #3 since it involved my yelling in frustration at the idiotic commentors at this blog.
Why is she suing the surgeon, except for the money? It’s not his fault, it’s the technician’s and the hospital’s. Disgusting.
The surgeon has no duty to make sure he’s operating on the right thing? They’re basically just robots who follow instructions? Are you serious?
What do you want her to sue for? Bananas?
It depends on details that aren’t available here. If it’s the hospital tech’s job to get the angiogram for every case and put it in the room for the surgeon and he put the wrong one in, then yes, it is the hospital’s fault and not the surgeons. I’m sure the lawyers would demand that before you do a case on someone you get a DNA sample to make sure they’re really who the hospital says they are, repeat all scans yourself (and develop the films yourself to be sure) to make sure they’re all of the right person and develop all instrumentation yourself to make sure the manufacturer didn’t screw up. Unfortunately here in the real world, we have to trust the people around us to do their jobs.
Did the angiogram used in the procedure have the patients name and ID number on it?
If it did, did the surgeon check this info? If not, why not?
A reasonable surgeon would check the name on the film/image. If the individual image(s) were labled with another patient’s name/ID then liability rests on the surgeon. If mislabled with this patient’s name/ID then liability would seem to rest on the institution.
Sounds reasonable, Dr. Hubbard. This situation is kinda like transplanting a heart without checking a blood type.
I fear that, as hospitals become more dependent upon electronic medical records, this sort of thing will become more common. The transition period (from paper to computer) is particularly ripe for mistakes. “Crashes” are no fun either.
Yet another individual who expects 100% flawless performance from the rest of the world, but is unable to even control her food intake. Great.
Cheers,
Felix Kasza.
I’ve never been to the hospital where everyone wasn’t constantly asking my name and birthdate to make sure I was really the right person. Now, some of them even scan your name ID band, “their own ID badge”, and the bar code on the records, films, meds or whatever. yes, if he is performing a procedure he needs to verify the files match the person. How could anyone think otherwise?
From the Article in the Bee.
“Baumgartner said in the next few months her chest pains and other symptoms were worse than they were before the surgery, so she consulted a Morgan Hill cardiologist in February 2006.”
Money Quote: “He ran tests, finding a number of blockages in her coronary artery system. The tests revealed that one bypass had missed the worst blockage, a lesion on an artery with a more than 90 percent blockage.”
Dr Fung is Phucked.
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