Indian doctor confuses his patients and performs wrong surgery

A surgeon was removed from his post at a New Delhi hospital for performing an unnecessary operation on a patient’s leg after mistaking him for another man, an official said Tuesday. Last week, the surgeon drilled a hole in 50-year-old Vijendra Tyagi’s right leg to insert a pin before realizing he had operated on the wrong patient. Tyagi had been admitted to the state-run Sushruta trauma center in the Indian capital with head injuries following a car accident. But he was mistaken for another man who had a broken leg and underwent surgery to repair a fracture he had not suffered. The hospital’s medical superintendent, Ajay Bahl, told AFP that the patient was under anesthesia and was unable to correct the mistake. The doctor, whose name has not been revealed, was removed from his position at the center for negligence and transferred to a separate facility under the close supervision of an experienced doctor. “The surgeon realized the mistake and removed the nail in the corrective surgery. He also apologized for the mistake, but we were offended and acted against him,” Bahl said. Tyagi was released from hospital over the weekend, but would need a week to fully recover from the unnecessary leg surgery, doctors said. Reports of medical negligence, often resulting in deaths, are widespread in India. Last week two doctors were arrested for negligence after being accused of failing to diagnose a 51-year-old physiotherapist admitted with high blood pressure. She suffered cardiac arrest and died. A week before that incident, a 30-year-old woman was improperly placed on dialysis at the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences, India’s top-ranked, after complaining of mild abdominal pain. The doctor tried to alter the documents to cover up the error. In December, a Delhi hospital incorrectly declared a pair of premature twins dead even though one of them was alive, sparking outrage and forcing the government to close the institution. The baby died in another hospital a few days later.