In Austria, Patient's Right Leg Amputated Instead of Left

The Linz court in Austria has fined a female surgeon €2,700 for mistakenly amputating a patient's right leg instead of the left, with the error only being discovered two days later. This was reported by the Russian service of BBC.

It was also decided to provide compensation of €5,000 to the husband of the patient who passed away before the trial.

The 82-year-old man (his name, as well as that of the surgeon, has not been disclosed) was admitted to a hospital in Freistadt in May of this year, where his left leg was supposed to be amputated.

The error was revealed only two days later during a dressing change when the patient was informed that he would have to undergo another amputation. The hospital administration stated that the incident occurred due to “unfavorable circumstances,” and the chief physician publicly apologized.

Nonetheless, the case went to court, where the surgeon claimed that the cause of the mistake was deficiencies in the surgical procedure itself. At the same time, when asked why she pointed to the right leg for the amputation instead of the left, she replied, “I don’t know.”