A 43-year-old surgeon was fined for having amputated the bad leg of a patient in Austria, this Wednesday, December 1, 2021.
It’s an incredible story. In Austria, a surgeon was sentenced following an error during a procedure, according to information from theAFP taken over by the Huffington Post. The 43-year-old professional had to amputate a leg of an 82-year-old patient. Before the operation, which took place last May, the surgeon had marked the wrong leg and no one noticed. The patient being very old, he was unable to express himself. Once in the operating room, the doctor therefore proceeded to amputate the patient’s valid leg and only realized her error two days after the operation. Last May, the man then had to undergo another amputation, this time of the correct leg.
Following this, the patient became a civil party. During the trial, the surgeon pleaded “human error”. Finally, the judge of the regional court of Linz (northern Austria) found her guilty of “gross negligence injury.” She was fined 2,700 euros, half of which was suspended. 5,000 euros in damages were awarded to the widow of the patient, who has since died. The surgeon, she has since changed clinic and can still appeal the judgment.
Malfunctions in the hospital?
To justify her error, the surgeon mentioned a flaw in the chain of control in the operating room. However, the management of the establishment in which the operation took place said in a press release that “The causes and circumstances of this medical error had been analyzed with precision”. Last May, the establishment launched an internal investigation to see more clearly and concluded to “a succession of unfortunate circumstances”.