Medical mistakes - it's all fun and games until someone loses a testicle
April 2nd 2010 05:16
A decision by a court in Italy to award a huge payout to a man whose perfectly good testicle was mistakenly removed will have men around the world cringing and reaching instinctively to protectively shield their genitals.
It's an instinctive reaction that's as impossible to avoid as it is is for women to understand. Men don't like the thought of being separated from their tackle and the mere suggestion of someone else living through such a calamity is enough to bring a tear to the eye of the toughest of blokes.
In case you didn't hear, the case centered on a man who, at the age of 27, was given the terrible news that he had a malignant growth on his testicle, which would have to be removed. The surgery went swimmingly except for one minor hitch - the doctors took off the wrong one.
The man was allowed to waken just long enough to be told the horrific news before being wheeled back in to surgery to have the other testicle whipped off as well.
This week an Italian court awarded the man 180,000 Euros in damages. One imagines the pain and suffering component would be rather high.
For men, this story is at the same time funny and cruel. We cringe at the thought yet we laugh uncomfortably at the man's misfortune. Understandably, his name has not been published.
Across the Atlantic, in the US state of North Carolina, a different but similar case is unfolding. There, at the (appropriately-named) Cape Fear Medical Center, doctors tried to induce a woman's labor after an ultrasound failed to detect her unborn baby's heartbeat.
It didn't work, so they wheeled the woman into surgery and began an emergency cesarean section. Again, all went well until they got to the part where they remove the baby.
There wasn't one.
Apparently the woman had a rare condition called pseudocyesis and exhibited all the signs of pregnancy, except she wasn't actually pregnant.
The two doctors involved are still practicing (and let's face it, they need all the practice they can get) because the NC Medical Board felt their error warranted nothing more that a 'letter of concern'.
Which brings us back to the question of what we should do with doctors who make the most spectacular of stuff-ups. The kind that find their way into blogs like "Crazy World".
Do you throw away years of medical training and experience because of one (admittedly bizarre) error? Or do you allow them to continue practicing despite the possibility that the next mistake could be fatal?
It's a tough question. All I know is that if a doctor ever removes my testicles by mistake, he'd better get the sack.
It's an instinctive reaction that's as impossible to avoid as it is is for women to understand. Men don't like the thought of being separated from their tackle and the mere suggestion of someone else living through such a calamity is enough to bring a tear to the eye of the toughest of blokes.
In case you didn't hear, the case centered on a man who, at the age of 27, was given the terrible news that he had a malignant growth on his testicle, which would have to be removed. The surgery went swimmingly except for one minor hitch - the doctors took off the wrong one.
The man was allowed to waken just long enough to be told the horrific news before being wheeled back in to surgery to have the other testicle whipped off as well.
This week an Italian court awarded the man 180,000 Euros in damages. One imagines the pain and suffering component would be rather high.
For men, this story is at the same time funny and cruel. We cringe at the thought yet we laugh uncomfortably at the man's misfortune. Understandably, his name has not been published.
Across the Atlantic, in the US state of North Carolina, a different but similar case is unfolding. There, at the (appropriately-named) Cape Fear Medical Center, doctors tried to induce a woman's labor after an ultrasound failed to detect her unborn baby's heartbeat.
It didn't work, so they wheeled the woman into surgery and began an emergency cesarean section. Again, all went well until they got to the part where they remove the baby.
There wasn't one.
Apparently the woman had a rare condition called pseudocyesis and exhibited all the signs of pregnancy, except she wasn't actually pregnant.
The two doctors involved are still practicing (and let's face it, they need all the practice they can get) because the NC Medical Board felt their error warranted nothing more that a 'letter of concern'.
Which brings us back to the question of what we should do with doctors who make the most spectacular of stuff-ups. The kind that find their way into blogs like "Crazy World".
Do you throw away years of medical training and experience because of one (admittedly bizarre) error? Or do you allow them to continue practicing despite the possibility that the next mistake could be fatal?
It's a tough question. All I know is that if a doctor ever removes my testicles by mistake, he'd better get the sack.
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