Mar 3, 2008 4:57 pm US/Pacific
Surgery Done On Wrong Side Of Body...Again
ORANGE, Calif.
Third time's not the charm at St. Joseph Hospital in the city of Orange, where an operation took place on the wrong side of body the third time in 25 months.
An operation was "inadvertently performed on the right knee," rather than the bad left knee, on Feb. 15, the hospital said in an email to the Los Angeles Times.
"No patient should have to go through this," said hospital chief medical officer Dr. Raymond Casciari. "There is no room for error when it comes to patient care. One case is too many," he told The Times.
A state investigation has been opened into the wrong knee surgery. Over the past 25 months or so, two patients had medical procedures done on the wrong side of their heads at St. Joseph.
A hospital accreditation committee recommends that hospitals require patients to be marked with a pen where the operation is supposed to occur before they undergo sedation. But some experts said the occasional slip-up shows that proper protocols are not always followed.
The name of the person who got the wrong knee operated on was not released.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
