Article: Wrong patient gets heart surgery

An 83-year-old woman who was being treated for a respiratory infection in the Mediclinic Kimberley underwent heart surgery when she was mistaken for another patient, Beeld reported on Wednesday.

Mediclinic spokeswoman Denise Coetzee told the newspaper a misunderstanding between two specialists led to Rita du Plessis being operated on on July 25.
 
According to the report, the hospital apologised for the confusion and the hospital, the surgeon, and the anaesthetist did not charge for the operation.
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oh, how sweet of them
 
Incompetence at it's best, although recently I heard about a woman who had the wrong leg amputated.
 
I know there was a case in Germany, I think, where a guy got castrated. Won himself a few millions.
 
So... what happened to the patient that actually needed the heart?
 
D3nz said:
Incompetence at it's best, although recently I heard about a woman who had the wrong leg amputated.
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Al Yankovic

[video=youtube;6wRReI4lMaw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wRReI4lMaw[/video]
 
2012 said:
So... what happened to the patient that actually needed the heart?
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They only wanted to remove excess moisture around the heart. It wasn't a heart replacement.
 
Mediclinic in general is very sloppy with their admin and, in my own experience, the care is usually below average. They make up for it with above average prices, however.

According to the report, the hospital apologised for the confusion and the hospital, the surgeon, and the anaesthetist did not charge for the operation.
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There is so much arrogance in this quote. It's as if they think they did her a huge favour.
One day only! Come in for a respiratory infection and get a heart surgery on the house.
She's 83, FFS! What if complications set in? And if she's in hospital for respiratory infection, the anesthesia wouldn't have done her any favours either.

Sue them right into the big hole, I say.
 
This is scary. Go to hospital to get better and you end up worse than when you went in. :eek:
 
May have been a failed surgery, but at least her heart was in it. At least she was open with the doctors who really seem to have touched her heart.
 
Errors happen in all businesses.

But this is one case where you can't make mistakes. Even the little ones can be dangerous. When I was a kid I was admitted to hospital for a week to put my left leg in traction. The nurse read the chart it wrong and prepped my right leg. I was 6 at the time and was not going to question her.

A few years ago a girl I worked with got a phone call from her doctor's receptionist to tell her that the test results show she had lost her baby. She was 8 months pregnant at the time. Turns out the dozy girl had phoned the wrong patient! And who phones a woman with news like that?!

And just a few weeks ago a nurse at a private hospital got the charts wrong and put my wife's one aunt on the wrong medication.

All stuff that could be fixed by simply checking the damn chart. I'm in IT. We are not allowed to make any changes to live servers and systems without running it through a change request and peer review. And when I do I run off a checklist to make sure I don't do something stupid.

You'd think the people handling our health can get a simple name right.
 
LaraC said:
This is scary. Go to hospital to get better and you end up worse than when you went in. :eek:
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Well, she's 83 and now has a brand new heart!

That should take her to 166 y/o minimum! Brand new engine in there. I know it worked for a friend's BMW.
 
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