Ohio woman sues hospital after alleged amputation of wrong leg: Hospital: ‘We are saddened by what occurred’

An Ohio woman has alleged that surgeons amputated the wrong leg during an operation last year. Sharon Jacks, 74, is a US Army veteran diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma (a type of skin cancer), and doctors at Selby General Hospital recommended the amputation of her lower right leg to save her life.

But when the surgery was completed, Jacks realized to her horror that surgeons had successfully amputated her totally healthy lower left leg. As she still had a leg that needed to be amputated, she then had to have another operation four months later, and is now a double amputee.

The hospital has admitted fault, telling WBNS-TV that, “This was an avoidable event, and that our expected operating room procedures were not followed.” They have added, in a statement: “Those involved were held accountable for their actions and are no longer in their positions. We are saddened by what occurred, and our team continues to keep this patient and their family in our prayers.”

“A complete failure of basic safety procedures”

Jacks is now suing the hospital, with her complaint (via The Guardian) saying she “suffered physical injury, permanent disability, pain and suffering, emotional distress, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, medical expenses and other damages” and that “the performance of surgery upon the wrong extremity constituted a complete failure of basic safety procedures.” 

Her lawsuit specifically named the medical and surgical teams, as well as hospital staff, accusing them of gross negligence, battery and reckless conduct and that they “acted willfully, wantonly, recklessly, maliciously, and with conscious disregard for the substantial certainty of catastrophic injury.”

The filed documents also emphasize that there are checks in place during amputations for precisely this reason that were conducted incorrectly. Her records show that the surgeons technically followed procedure by taking two “time-outs” to confirm they were operating on the wrong person, what they were supposed to be doing, and which leg they were supposed to amputate. But “despite multiple opportunities … to identify and correct the error” they cut off the wrong leg.

It’s unclear what will happen next, though as the hospital has admitted its mistake the only issue will be damages. A similar case occurred in 1995, when a Florida surgeon amputated Willie King’s healthy foot by mistake. He eventually settled for $1.15 million, though inflation almost certainly means a similar case nowadays would see a substantially larger settlement for compensatory and punitive damages. The case continues.