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VA Patient Has Wrong Testicle Removed - 4/5/2007 4:19:59 AM

Jaded2005

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VA Patient Has Wrong Testicle Removed

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - An Air Force veteran has filed a federal claim after an operation at a Veterans Administration hospital in which a healthy testicle was removed instead of a potentially cancerous one.
Benjamin Houghton, 47, was to have had his left testicle removed June 14 at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center because there was a chance it could harbor cancer cells. It also was atrophied and painful.
But doctors mistakenly removed the right testicle, according to medical records and the claim, which seeks $200,000 for future care and unspecified damages. He still hasn't had the other testicle removed.
"At first I thought it was a joke," Houghton told the Los Angeles Times. "Then I was shocked. I told them, 'What do I do now?'"
Houghton, his wife, Monica, and their attorney, Dr. Susan Friery, said they hoped to get the VA's attention by going public with the situation.
Dr. Dean Norman, chief of staff for the Greater Los Angeles VA system, has formally apologized to Houghton and his wife.
"We are making every attempt that we can to care for Mr. Houghton, but it's in litigation, and that's all we can tell you," he said. The hospital changed practices as a result of the case, he added.

Another reason why we pay the most for medical cost...lol

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< Message edited by ModeratorEleven -- 4/5/2007 5:48:02 AM >

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RE: VA Patient Has Wrong Testicle Removed - 4/5/2007 4:31:00 AM

LadyEllen

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A right balls up, as we'd say in the UK......

We've had the same thing happen so many times - the wrong kidney, the wrong leg etc. It amazes me how no one thought, until these things happened, that it might be an idea to mark the right one for removal and to get it checked before proceeding.

E

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RE: VA Patient Has Wrong Testicle Removed - 4/5/2007 6:46:03 AM

Termyn8or

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And some people wonder why I avoid doctors.

Eat right, but first you have to find out how to eat right.

I shall be ½ dead before they get ahold of me. And if I die it is just too bad.

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RE: VA Patient Has Wrong Testicle Removed - 4/5/2007 6:47:28 PM

Sinergy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: LadyEllen

A right balls up, as we'd say in the UK......

We've had the same thing happen so many times - the wrong kidney, the wrong leg etc. It amazes me how no one thought, until these things happened, that it might be an idea to mark the right one for removal and to get it checked before proceeding.

E

I read an article about somebody who went in for surgery to have a leg amputated (diabetes induced gangrene) and wrote with a Sharpy on the good leg "Do not amputate, this is the good leg."

Mistakes do happen, but not failing to prepare for somebody else screwing things up is preparing to fail.

Sinergy

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RE: VA Patient Has Wrong Testicle Removed - 4/6/2007 6:36:27 AM

windchymes

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I'm sure we're going to hear a lot of horror stories about VA hospitals now, because of the Walter Reed story.....

There is a regulation now in the US that, just before a surgery is about to be performed, there is to be one last-minute stop and check, where they review the patient's case, verify the patients identification one last time, what operation is about to be performed and what body part it is about to be performed on. The body part is supposed to be marked BEFORE the patient is even put to sleep, and some places even give the patient a marker and he HIMSELF marks the body part, and also puts a "NO!" on the opposite side, if it's a bilateral (right or left) choice. So, if this really happened, somebody screwed up really bad.

I've even heard stories of patients doing this themselves before going. You can never be too careful. If this story is true and recent, there should definitely be serious repercussions, because of that last-minute check regulation not being performed.

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