Florida Health Care Under Scrutiny

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{{ Civil and possible criminal charges are being considered after the death of an Alabama man who died when a surgeon at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast mistakenly removed the patient’s liver instead of his spleen, “causing immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death.” }}

Isn’t the liver a lot bigger than a spleen? Seems like that would be a hard mistake to make.

{{ After the procedure, Dr. Shaknovsky told Beverly Bryan, a nurse, the “spleen ” was so diseased that it was four times bigger than usual … }}

At least if the surgeon loses his Florida license, there are probably still job opportunites for him in Texas.

intercst

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The liver exists on the opposite side of the abdomen, and the Portal Vein is impossible to confuse with anything in the abdomen. From the story apparently the surgeon persisted to label the organ as “spleen” even after removing it. Of course, by the time he severed the Portal Vein 40% of blood reserve was immediately hemorrhaged into the cavity.
He didn’t notice the extreme blood loss?
The Anesthesiologist didn’t notice anything unusual?
How did they even have the time to mislabel the organ?

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Not only that, but liver on the right and spleen the left.

Only thing I can think of is that the patient had a condition called situs inversus where the organs are on the opposite sides of where they are normally located. Then throw on of a few disease processes and confusion is possible.

Like any other medical story, the journalism is sorely lacking.

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