This story has got to be every surgical patient's nightmare - and, I presume, every surgeon's as well. From WNBC.com:
Santusht Perera's physician’s license was suspended after he removed of portions of the wrong lung during surgery and allegedly attempted to conceal the error.
Perera was issued a two-year suspension on June 5 from the State Board of Medical Examiners . The Board’s appellate court upheld the suspension in Perera’s appeal case with a final decision on June 12.
After the surgery, Perera told the patient, Richard Flagg , the right lung tissue, which was wrongfully removed, contained a life-threatening tumor even though he knew it did not.
According to state medical officials, Perera's misconduct prevented Flagg from being properly treated. Before he died in September, 2003, Flagg testified before Congress arguing for patients’ rights in malpractice cases.Perera’s suspension from his practice at Hoboken University Medical Center began June 6.He has been fined $30,000 in penalties and $51,273.10 in reimbursement of costs.
[Video of WNBC report here.]
Read the state attorney general's 15-page administrative action complaint from May 16, 2005 (PDF).
This story reminded me of a 1995 medical story in NYC. That's when a New York surgeon operated on the wrong side of the brain of Rajeswari Ayyappan, mother of Bollywood star Sridevi - Ayyappan died later in India. The hospital then settled with Sridevi's family and that doctor went onto become head of neurosurgery at another hospital, where, in 2000, he was suspended after operating on the wrong side of another patient's brain. Read a 2000 Rediff report on the "Sridevi's mother" doctor.
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Earlier on SAJAforum:
- Dr. Dipak Desai of Las Vegas accused of infecting thousands with hepatitis (anyone have updates on the Desai story?)
