Chicago Surgeon Operates on Wrong Knee
Posted on Aug 6, 2009 1:50pm PDT
In Chicago, Illinois, a orthopedic surgery lawsuit was filed against a Chicago hospital where surgeons supposedly operated on the wrong knee of a patient. After the operation, the patient claimed that he suffered from permanent injuries due to the surgeons' negligence.
The medical malpractice lawsuit, which was filed last week by Krzysztof Kordes in Cook County Circuit Court names 3 defendants: Dr. Scott A. Seymore, surgical assistant Lukasz Sidorowicz and the Orthopedic Associates of Riverside.
On May 6, 2006, Kordes was supposed to have surgery performed on his right knee. He was scheduled for a knee arthroscopy, partial lateral meniscectomy and ACL reconstruction. His surgery was performed at MacNeal Hospital in a suburb of Chicago. During the surgery, the doctor began to operate on the wrong knee. Once he realized he was making a mistake, he stitched the knee closed and then starting to perform scheduled procedures on the Kordes' opposite limb.
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons said that the wrong site surgery was devastating for the patient, a preventable
surgical error and that the injury resulted from "poor preoperative planning, lack of institutional controls, failure of the surgeon to exercise due care, or a simple mistake in communication between the patient and the surgeon." They also said that 84% of wrong site lawsuits result in a settlement for patients.
In Kordes' medical malpractice lawsuit, he states that the orthopedic surgery error has left him with permanent damage to the cartilage of his knee, which had been perfect prior to his surgery.
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