A Florida surgeon mistakenly removed a man’s liver instead of his spleen, causing him to die on the operating table, a lawyer for the man’s widow alleges.

William Bryan, 70, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, underwent surgery on Aug. 21, at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hospital in Miramar, Florida, because of spleen abnormalities, according to a statement from the personal injury firm Zarzaur Law, based in Pensacola, Florida.

  • superkret
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    13 days ago

    I’ll just bookmark this for when I really fuck up at my IT job and cause some data loss.

  • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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    13 days ago

    How?

    Shaknovsky told Beverly Bryan her husband’s spleen was so diseased that it was four times bigger than normal and it had moved to the other side of his body

    Oh, of course. I’m sure organs do that sort of thing all the time.

    • Shawdow194@fedia.io
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      13 days ago

      “This spleen is so diseased it’s in the exact same place as and looks just like a liver”

    • sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip
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      13 days ago

      I mean, there is an extremely rare condition where basically all of your internal organs are mirrored or flipped from their normal orientation… (situs inversus, roughly 1 in 10,000 people are estimated to have it)

      But…

      If that were the case here, it’d be immediately obvious to any one with basic anatomical knowledge.

      Hope this dumbass goes to jail.

      • superkret
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        13 days ago

        Hope this dumbass goes to jail.

        Why? Unless intent can be proven, this is a fuck-up and nothing else. Jailtime would benefit literally no one in this case.

    • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      My appendix was apparently on the other side. It took them forever to diagnose and I lived with chronic appendicitis as a result for over a year. That was fun. It took my ass going septic and going to the ER for them to even bother to run a CT and find the source of the problem. Even when I said are you sure this isn’t appendicitis? No raiderkev, your appendix is on the other side. This is just indigestion. Fuck you urgent care.

      • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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        13 days ago

        I assume that in this case, they did the imaging before starting the surgery. Even if the spleen really was on the wrong side, they should have known in advance.

  • ArmyTiger@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    As a surgeon, I have a lot of questions. But I have trouble accepting a personal injury attorney’s statement at face value when they stand to benefit from a judgement or settlement, too.

  • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    Florida has a doctor shortage and will only get worse because of the abortion ban and other attacks on minorities by the Christo fascists running the state. I bet mistakes like this will be more common in the future

  • Noxy@yiffit.net
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    13 days ago

    I’ve made a very similar mistake in Rimworld, tho I blame the menu for having “harvest liver” so close to “install bionic leg”