California doctor sued for alleged wrong-site surgery

A California woman has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against her doctor for wrong site surgery when the doctor removed her left ovary when the right ovary had been scheduled for removal due a cyst.  The lawsuit also accuses the doctor of engaging in a cover-up to conceal her negligence.  The doctor is denying that the error occurred and disputes taking part in a cover-up.

Wrong site surgery is a serious medical error which is considered one of the "never events" in medicine -- the kind of medical error that has the potential to cause serious injury or death to patients.  Most hospitals and other health care institutions have virtually eliminated this kind of error by adopting a "time out" procedure beore surgery gets underway to make sure that the right procedure is being performed on the right patient and that all other conditions are good for the surgery to proceed safely.

If the wrong ovary was in fact removed, this truly was a "never event" which should not have occurred and is evidence of medical malpractice on the part of the doctor and the whole surgical team.