A 31 year-old woman from Baltimore is suing her obstetrician for removing her healthy, right ovary and fallopian tube when her physician was to remove a cyst on her left ovary. The botched surgery has left the woman with diminished fertility and emotional distress.

Two years ago, when the woman was pregnant, her obstetrician noticed a mass on her left ovary during an ultrasound. The physician diagnosed it as a dermoid cyst, usually benign. A year later, the cyst was still there and so the patient underwent an outpatient cystectomy. The woman returned a few weeks later complaining of pelvic pain. It wasn’t until she went to the emergency room that she discovered her right ovary and fallopian tube were missing and her left ovary, with the cyst, remained.

If you or someone you love has suffered as the result of wrong site surgery, contact the New Jersey wrong site surgery lawyers of Levinson Axelrod, P.A. at 800-346-5529.

A recent study conducted by the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare found that as many as 40 wrong site surgeries occur in the United States every week. Wrong site surgeries include surgeries performed on the wrong side of the body, the wrong procedure, or a procedure performed on the wrong patient.

The study involved eight hospitals in Illinois where it was found that there are nine areas where surgical errors can, and often do, occur. Many of these errors can stem from incomplete or incorrect documentation for the patient or distractions in the surgical room.

In some hospitals, a “green light process” is used to ensure that the correct procedure is performed on the correct patient. This process makes sure that a patient has been cleared completely for surgery before it begins. The process also limits the number of doctors and surgeons dealing with the patient.

If you or someone you love has been the victim of a wrong site surgery, please contact the New Jersey wrong site surgery attorneys of Levinson Axelrod, P.A., at 800-346-5529.

Recent national studies have found that 1,300 to 2,700 people undergo a wrong site surgery in the United States every year. Researchers have attributed this alarming number to many doctors just going through the motions when performing a surgery.

In one incident, a four-year-old boy from Washington mistakenly had his left eye operated on when he underwent surgery for a wandering right eye. The doctor who performed the surgery stated that she lost her sense of direction while operating which caused her to perform surgery on the wrong eye.

Professors at Oregon Health & Science University have told patients that they should pay attention to what is going on before a surgery and speak up if they think something is going wrong. However, patients are not advised to take complete control of their surgery because, as one study found, four out of 100 patients incorrectly identified where they were going to have a surgery performed.

If you or someone you love has undergone surgery on the wrong body part, please contact the New Jersey wrong site surgery lawyers of Levinson Axelrod, P.A., at 800-346-5529.