Surgery is an incredibly complex undertaking. I can't even begin to understand how to cut into a person and understand just what you're doing in there.
But, as with most things, especially complex ones, sometimes mistakes happen. Although, when it comes to something as serious as surgery, especially with a cancer patient, you really, really don't want any mistakes.
Well, that's what happened to one very unfortunate Welsh patient. As reported by Yahoo!News, a patient in Bangor, Wales, had the wrong part of their bowel removed. This came after the surgeon made the unfortunate mistake of assuming a tattoo was the marked tumour site.
According to a report from the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, what happened was considered a "never event". What that means is that the event was extremely serious, and that it was also preventable.
"The patient underwent a laparoscopic-assisted extended right hemicolectomy for bowel cancer." What that basically means is that the patient needed a cancerous part of their colon removed with minimally invasive techniques. According to Brisbane Surgeon, the surgery is meant to only involve small incisions.
Videos by Wide Open Country
The Surgeon Couldn't Find the Tumor
The report continued, "At the operation, the surgeon could not find the tumor or the tattoo in the descending colon."
But, in what must have felt quite convenient for the surgeon, "a few centers proximal, there was a very visible tattoo." So the surgeon "assumed that that must be the tattoo indicating the site of the tumor."
But the surgeon was wrong - so he'd operated on the wrong side of the patient. They were left with half a bowel, and the cancer still there.
These 10 "never events" from the north Wales health board include four other examples of "wrong site" procedures. Another pretty shocking case came from Wrexham Maelor hospital.
A patient at the hospital was undergoing treatment for cancer cells at a dermatology one-stop clinic. As a part of the treatment, the cells were frozen using an extremely cold substance.
But, they ended up treating the wrong area - and they didn't find out till the patient had actually told them.
