As reported by ABC News and the Associated Press, a four-year-old boy having surgery to correct a wandering right eye, had surgery on his left eye instead as a nurse had mistakenly covered a mark that would have indicated the accurate eye to be operated on.
Since his parents detected his wandering eye, J.M. had been under the care of Dr. S.G. – with examinations every six months – and decided to have him undergo surgery to correct the problem.
The surgery was scheduled just a few days before J.M. was due to celebrate his fourth birthday. It was performed at the Legacy Emanuel Medical Center operating room in Portland, Ore.
T.G. told news media that the surgery, as described to her, was to weaken the muscle of J.M.’s right eye. The strength in the right eye is what caused his eye to wander.
After the procedure was already completed, she was told of the error. T.G. said, “At 11a.m., the surgery should have been done and we should have been in the recovery room with our son at that point. Instead, a nurse who was at the operating table came out and simply said, ‘We're operating on both eyes.’ I didn't understand at first, I asked, ‘Can you repeat that, because I'm not sure I heard correctly.’”
That was when Dr. S.G. allegedly told the family of the error. She admitted to losing her sense of direction during the surgery.
She claimed that a nurse had covered the mark that indicated which eye needed the correction.
It allegedly happened during the surgical preparation.
Part of T.G.’s concern is that the mistake was not readily admitted to. She said, “They didn't tell us about the doctor accidentally operating on the wrong eye. They just said they were operating on both.
As far as responsibility, at that point when they realized, I felt they were trying to cover it up at first. I don't know if that was because the doctor wanted to be the one to tell us, (but) from what they said, I felt like they were trying to hide something at the time.”
Per T.G, since the surgery J.M.’s left eye now seems to be wandering and the right still doesn’t appear to be any different, it appears to still wander. He has eye drops administered three times a day and protects his eyes with dark glasses.
Of her son’s feelings in the matter T.G. said, “He is very aware that (Dr. S.G.) made a mistake. He's a soldier though, going on like nothing happened. He wants to run and play. He's a 4-year-old boy, what can I say.”
Lori Morgan, the hospital CEO, told media, “We have a critical incident team that will be responding to it, that will be interviewing all of our staff in the operating room as well as private practice physicians in the operating room that were involved. Our hope is to never have it happen again in any of our hospitals.”
Dr. S.G is not on staff at Legacy, she only used their facilities to perform surgery.
T.G. has hired a lawyer and is considering a malpractice lawsuit in the matter. She said, “I just can't stress the fact that we're doing this just to make this public.
A lot of people think we're doing this for money, and that's not the case. We're just doing this for our kid. We're speaking out for our kid because nobody else can.”
When having a surgical procedure, or any type of medical care, accuracy is expected. If you or someone you love has been injured due to the error of a physician, or staff, contact a medical malpractice attorney today for assistance.