Australian hospital amputates 'wrong leg' of elderly man, blames 'human error'

In a shocking tale of medical negligence, surgeons at an Austrian hospital amputated the “wrong” leg of an elderly man. The “tragic mistake” happened in Freistadt Clinic which blamed it on “human error”. "We are deeply shocked that on Tuesday, May 18, despite quality assurance standards, the wrong leg of an 82-year old man ... was amputated," the clinic said in a statement.

According to the hospital staff, the error started after a worker incorrectly marked the right leg of the 82-year-old man for the operation. The unnamed elderly was facing several medical ailments and has to get his left leg removed pertaining to past sickness. The error was realized during a standard wound dressing change, two days after the operation.

Calling the incident a "disastrous combination of circumstances," the Freistadt Clinic said that they have informed the patient's family of the error and has offered him psychological support.  Additionally, the hospital authorities have also initiated a probe and an analysis of the case. The surgeon who performed the surgery has also taken time off, at her request, according to the hospital.

Another surgical error

Earlier this year, a Chinese actor posted pictures of her damaged nose after cosmetic surgery went wrong, to warn people about the dangers of the entire procedure. Gao Liu, a singer and actor who starred in multiple films as well as television programmes, took to Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo, to elaborate why she went away from the limelight in the recent months after being viewed as the rising star of the nation. In the post which has now gone viral, she said that her month-long absence from the public eye was due to a “cosmetic surgical incident” that left her nose with necrosis of the noses. She shared the images of the dead tissue on her nose tip, and some of them could be deemed as graphic. Having a followership of at least five million, Gao shared the pictures to trigger a fresh conversation around the issue of cosmetic surgery and the risk attached to the entire procedure, which as per reports, is highly popular in China. 

Representative Image: Pixabay