Removing the wrong organs and leaving scalpels in patients’ bodies — how deadly medical blunders are on the rise in America

Data shows that doctors removed the wrong body parts or left medical devices in hundreds of Americans last year.

A story about a 70-year-old Alabama man who died when surgeons removed his liver instead of his spleen shocked the nation earlier this month.

Now, a The report into these so-called ‘never events’ – accidents so serious they should never have happened – has exposed how these cases have increased since 2019.

In total, 1,411 U.S. patients will suffer the consequences of one of these errors in 2023, about three people a day. More than 200 patients died last year.

While there was a slight drop this year compared to 2022, the total number of such events has increased overall since 2019, said Professor Adam Taylor of Lancaster University in the UK.

Write in The conversationAccording to him, there were always less than 1,000 per year before an increase began in 2021.

Professor Taylor said: ‘This type of medical error is known as a never event because it should never have happened. Sadly, they happen all too often.’

The most common errors were falls, incorrect operations, and leaving objects in the patient’s body.

Eighteen percent of all these events resulted in death – an estimated 253 people. Fifty-seven percent, approximately 804 patients, suffered serious but temporary damage.

The vast majority of never events—about 48 percent—involved falls, involving about 670 patients.

These generally occurred when a person was walking, lying in bed, or using the toilet without being noticed. About two dozen of these falls resulted in death and 56 resulted in permanent damage.

The remaining 538 falls caused serious but temporary damage.

Last year, 112 incorrect operations were performed, an increase of 26 percent compared to 2022.

This included operations in which the wrong implant was placed, the wrong patient was operated on, the wrong procedure was performed or the wrong body part was operated on.

In seven percent of cases, the wrong implant was placed. In 12 percent, doctors operated on the wrong patient, in 19 percent they performed the wrong procedure, and in 62 percent of cases, the wrong body part was operated on.

None of these accidents resulted in death or permanent disability, but 39 percent caused serious temporary damage.

Incorrect surgeries most often occur when doctors operate on the wrong side of the body while performing a procedure on an organ that is symmetrical, such as the kidneys, Professor Taylor wrote.

This happens when scans are placed the wrong way on the screen, when clinical reports do not state which side of the body is damaged, or when they incorrectly indicate which side is diseased.

This adverse event report comes from the Joint Commissiona private, American, non-profit organization that reports on hospital and health care data from around the world. It has published data on these events since at least 2013.

The report found that in 2023, there were 110 patients who still had foreign bodies in their bodies – a An increase of 11 percent compared to 2022.

Of the accidentally left behind objects, 35 percent were sponges, 10 percent were guide wires, and 8 percent were fragments of medical instruments.

The remaining 47 percent consisted of a mixture of other tools. In one case, surgical scissors were even found in the body.

According to the report, in 2023, after foreign object cases, there were 106 cases of sexual assault, rape, assault or murder involving hospitalized patients in the United States.

Half of these involved patient-to-patient interactions, 28 percent involved staff-to-patient interactions, and 13 percent involved a patient supporting a staff member.

Finally, there were 81 cases where patient treatment was unnecessarily delayed and 71 cases where patients committed suicide while in hospital.

William Bryan, a 70-year-old from Florida, died last month after his liver was removed during surgery instead of his spleen. And he is just the latest in the public cases of never-happenings.

In 2011, Carolyn Boerste, a Kentuckian who was 54 at the time, underwent surgery to improve blood flow to her legs. When surgeons cut a blood vessel in the wrong place during surgery, they used a sponge to soak up the blood.

But they forgot to remove the sponge before stitching up Mrs. Boerste, leading to serious stomach problems, infections and ultimately a leg amputation.

In 2019, Massachusetts man Albert Hubbard had one of his kidneys removed in emergency surgery after his doctor reportedly viewed the wrong CT scan.

The man who actually needed kidney surgery faced delayed care.

Whatever the cause of these missteps, many never-happened lawsuits have resulted in large settlements for patients.

International payouts for never-events between 1990 and 2010 totaled more than $1.3 billion.

Ms. Boerste, the Kentucky patient, was awarded $10.5 million in damages in a 2020 lawsuit against the University of Louisville Hospital. Mr. Hubbard’s lawsuit against his doctor appears to be still pending.

To reduce the number of sentinel events, international organisations have looked at improving operating room and hospital policies, according to Professor Taylor.

For example, in 2008 the World Health Organization Surgical Safety ChecklistThis includes questions that should help providers pause and confirm that they have operated on the right patient in the right area and that all of the tools they started the surgery with have been accounted for at the end.

Since its introduction, complications after surgery have fallen by 36 per cent. While this is encouraging, Professor Taylor said, it is not perfect.

He added: ‘But as the never-events statistics show, there is still plenty of room for improvement. As demand for healthcare increases, systems must adapt to ensure patient safety is not compromised.’