An American man filed a lawsuit against medical staff at a university medical center, accusing him of removing the wrong organ during appendix surgery.
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A 72-year-old man named George Piano presented with abdominal pain and presented to the University of Washington Medical Center on December 6, 2022.
Doctors diagnosed him with appendicitis, but according to court documents seen by USA Today, two surgeons removed part of the diverticulitis from the patient’s colon instead of the swollen appendix during surgery.
With his appendix still in his body, Mr Piano then continued to feel severe pain in his abdomen.
“When I woke up and the medications were no longer working, I was in much worse pain than the one that got me to the hospital,” Mr. Piano says.
Two days later, tests conducted at the hospital showed that the appendix was still present in his stomach.
Another operation would have been carried out on the same day to finally remove the appendix, but the damage to the patient would have meant he would have spent at least 53 days in hospital over the past year.
These events reportedly caused anxiety, significant weight loss, and short-term memory loss.
“I feel very lucky to be alive,” he said. We don’t want this to happen to anyone else. “Someone has to take responsibility for what happened.”
For its part, the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington told USA Today that it cannot comment on this matter because it will be referred to court.
