Youth injures right foot, Fortis Hospital doctors operate left foot by ‘mistake’
The patient Ravi Rai. Image: Dailymail
Fortis Hospital, on Wednesday, sacked two orthopedic surgeons, two nurses and an operation theater technician for ‘wrongly’ operating on a 24-year-old patient.
The patient, Ravi Rai, had fractured his right foot after slipping from a staircase at his residence. Following which, Ravi’s family rushed him to Fortis Hospital in Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh area.
After initial checkup, doctors informed the patient that his foot needed to be operated. The family agreed for the surgery, but they had to delay it in order to arrange the insurance papers. Meanwhile, doctors put a temporary cast on his right foot.
After the hospital verified the medical insurance papers, doctors performed the surgery on Tuesday. But, only after Ravi regained consciousness after the surgery and screamed with pain, that doctors realised that they had operated on the wrong foot.
After the incident, Ravi’s father Ram Karan Rai told Time of India, “The doctors said surgery was needed to fix the bones. We agreed but wanted some time to arrange the insurance papers. So a temporary cast was put. It’s incomprehensible how they missed the marks left by the cast and operated on the wrong foot. It is a case of medical negligence and the doctors must be punished suitably for this.”
Later, the hospital authority issued a statement on Wednesday that read, “Following yesterday’s incident, we immediately set up an expert committee to enquire into the matter. Their preliminary view suggests that in the rarest of aberrations, the operating team may have disregarded and sidestepped due processes. We take our obligation to our patients very seriously. As this is a zero tolerance area for us, the services of erring doctors and OR personnel (five) have been dispensed forthwith.”
Ravi is currently being treated at Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh area.
