2 doctors perform surgery on wrong side of woman's head

Two doctors at a hospital in Shimane Prefecture mistakenly performed surgery on the wrong side of the head of a female patient who was suffering from an acute subdural hematoma, leading to a 40-minute delay in the removal of a blood tumor, the hospital said Sunday in a report on the incident.

The woman in her 80s, who was taken to the Matsue Red Cross Hospital in an unconscious state in May, had a blood tumor on the left side of her head, but the two doctors mainly involved in the surgery mistakenly thought they had to operate on the right side, the report said.

The neurosurgeon in charge of the craniotrypesis surgery noticed the mistake only after he failed to find the tumor on the right side of the patient's head.

The woman has been making good progress since the operation, but in its investigative report, the hospital's council, consisting of outside experts, did not rule out the possibility that a delay in removing a blood tumor could affect the human body.

The hospital has apologized both to the woman, who is still hospitalized, and her family.

Kohei Hata, the director of the hospital, told Kyodo News, "We deeply apologize. We will make sure confirmation is received and try to prevent a recurrence."

The hospital said in its incident report that the woman fell as she was getting out of a car at around 4 p.m. on May 23. She was taken to the hospital and diagnosed as suffering from a brain contusion and acute subdural hematoma on the left side of her head following a scan using computerized tomography.

But the doctor at the emergency department mistakenly shaved the right side of the woman's head and the doctor in charge of the surgery did not notice the mistake and started to operate without confirming the results of the CT scan.

Once the mistake was discovered, the doctor explained what had happened to the patient's family and reattached the mistakenly removed skull fragment from the right side of the head. The doctor then conducted the operation on the left side of the woman's head.

The operation ended shortly after 10 p.m. the same day.

Following the incident, the hospital has produced a new set of guidelines to prevent doctors from repeating such mistakes which include requiring doctors to announce the location of surgery before the commencement of an operation.