Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Least surprising headline of the week:

Hospital fined for wrong-side surgery

Shouldn't that be obvious?

What IS surprising is the rest of the story, which begins:
Rhode Island Hospital was fined $50,000 and reprimanded by the state Department of Health Monday after its third instance this year of a doctor performing brain surgery in the wrong side of a patient's head.
Third time? THIRD time???? In neurosurgery???? I'm not a doctor, but shouldn't it be pretty easy to tell one side of the brain from the other? And if it's not, shouldn't it be clearly marked on the X-rays, CT scans or whatever else the surgeon is using as a guide? And the hospital was fined $50,000 for the THIRD mistaken surgery? Shouldn't it have been $500,000, or $5 million, so they get the message?

Seems to me, a bunch of people need to get their heads examined.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd opt for $500,000 for the FIRST time someone operated by mistake on
the wrong side of a person's brain.

This is just unacceptable and so easily avoidable. Jeez, are these
"doctors" drinking before the surgery?

Anonymous said...

Left side? Right side? Hey, it's not brain surgery....