The entire team that operated on the wrong patient's leg was suspended.

On the morning of July 20, the leadership of Viet Duc Hospital decided to temporarily suspend the surgical team that mistakenly operated on the right leg of a patient with left leg pain.

At the press conference, Professor Dr. Tran Binh Giang, Deputy Director of Viet Duc Hospital, apologized to patient Thao for the medical error of operating on the wrong leg. The surgical team involved in the incident was temporarily suspended from work. The hospital has established a professional council to review the entire diagnostic and surgical process for this patient, from which errors will be determined and disciplinary action taken.

The hospital has issued a notice to draw professional experience from the entire hospital to ensure that similar errors do not occur.

Patient Thao, who had surgery on the wrong leg, is being treated at Viet Duc Hospital. Photo: Le Nga.

For now, Viet Duc Hospital will waive all hospital fees and treatment costs for the patient and continue to monitor his health to provide future support. The hospital will also clarify the information reported by the family that after learning of the wrong surgery, the surgeon asked for additional money to operate on the patient's other leg.

The doctor who directly operated on patient Thao was not present at the press conference. The doctor's initial report to the hospital leadership was that when entering the operating room, the surgical assistants had prepared and anesthetized the patient, covering him with a cloth, leaving only the leg that would be operated on. Therefore, the doctor performed the surgery as usual and did not think that he had operated on the wrong leg.

Anh Thao, 37 years old, was diagnosed with peroneal nerve palsy in his left leg, so he was limping. The hospital doctors consulted and decided to perform surgery to transfer the posterior tibialis tendon to the front to restore function to the patient. The surgery took place on July 19, and the patient was given spinal anesthesia. After the surgery, the patient woke up and was re-examined and found out that he had been operated on the wrong leg. The same afternoon, the patient was operated on again.

"For a hospital with a 110-year history and a team of highly skilled experts, this mistake is extremely rare. Every year, the hospital performs more than 50,000 surgeries, and the surgeons assigned to perform the surgery have undergone rigorous training and evaluation," Professor Giang shared.

The Deputy Director of Viet Duc Hospital also said that the wrong leg surgery did not affect the patient's health much. The hospital's leaders have asked the Orthopedic Trauma Department 3 to treat the patient with good medicine so that the patient can recover best.

Both of the patient's legs were operated on, but the right leg was operated on by mistake. Photo: Le Nga.

Anh Thao said that before the surgery, he was anesthetized in the lower part of his body. When he woke up, he saw that his right leg had been operated on, so he told the doctor about the mistake. "That's when the doctor looked at my medical records and operated on my other leg," the patient said. He has now recovered and can eat lightly. However, the wrongly operated leg is showing signs of pain.

The patient's sister, Nguyen Thi Thanh, said that after the wrong surgery, the surgeon and the head of the Orthopedic Trauma Department 3 came to apologize to the family. According to the family, the surgeon explained: "Before the surgery, I asked Mr. Thao 'are you operating on your right leg?', the patient said 'yes' so I performed the surgery and made a mistake by not looking at the medical records."

According to VNE