The Evangelische Elisabeth Klinik in Berlin is preparing its operating room for an operation on the right side. Since this is delayed, another patient is given priority. However, the man has problems with his left foot. A serious mix-up ensues.
A mix-up with serious consequences: A patient at the Evangelische Elisabeth Klinik in Berlin was operated on on the wrong side. “We deeply regret that there was a mix-up of interventions in our house,” said a spokeswoman for the Johannesstift Diakonie, to which the clinic belongs.
Accordingly, the man was to be operated on at the end of November for an injury on his left foot – the operation was then carried out on the right foot. There are usually security measures to avoid such mistakes, the spokeswoman said.
The surgical area is marked with a non-washable pen, the marking is checked later and a surgical checklist is used. “Despite all these security measures, an operation took place on the wrong side.”
The spokeswoman said that one is currently “intensively analyzing” how this could happen. “According to the current state of knowledge, the fact that a major intervention was delayed and the resulting gap was used for a small intervention at short notice probably contributed significantly to the occurrence of the error,” it said. “The major intervention was planned for the right side and the OR was already set up accordingly.”
Such errors are “very, very rare,” said the spokeswoman. The patient will receive financial compensation, said chief physician Friedrich Jah according to the announcement. “We are absolutely aware that neither money nor good words can undo what happened.”
