Surgeon's mistake leaves patient without a leg

Reading what

A twenty-year-old kid walks into a hospital in Seattle for emergency appendicitis surgery. Some intern is on duty in the middle of the night, goes in to operate, and somehow manages to sever his abdominal aorta. It’s a mess. Because of that mistake, the guy ends up losing a leg. Does this sound like an honest medical error to you, or does it smell like straight-up negligence?

That’s a mistake..
his boss’s fault..
he isn't even allowed to handle basic tasks there on his own, let alone perform surgeries..
I think that's how it works—just my best guess..

Lately, I've been reading about so many medical malpractice cases that it makes me wonder if walking into a hospital is even worth the risk. I mean, I get that humans make mistakes—that's just life, I guess—but there seems to be such a lack of qualified specialists in the US these days 😠. Maybe we really ought to tighten up the requirements for medical licensing, because honestly, you see some pretty terrifying incompetence coming out of the system lately 😁 ...

That is why I have no patience for doctors. Except for orthodontists. 😬

The point is, we pay our Medicare premiums just to be nickel-and-dimed by doctors $10 for basic checkups once a month plus $3.25 extra fees for prescriptions... someone might try to tell you it’s not that much money. Then why the hell are we paying into the system at all?? Is it so we can walk into a hospital with the flu and leave as a cripple because the doctors are busy jerking off in their offices while interns and med students are out there performing surgery and handing out meds?

Forget it!!

The data alone doesn't explain why this happened. It’s entirely possible that doctor was twenty hours into a shift, juggling endless procedures, and simply lost focus. In an airline cockpit, there are strict regulations regarding physical and mental readiness, duty limits, and fatigue management. Medicine lacks those safeguards. We shouldn't be surprised when errors exceed the bare minimum.

stormylynx14, look, this is a hospital. I highly doubt a single surgeon is pulling a 20-hour shift solo. Unless it’s one continuous procedure—which is physically impossible for any human being to sustain—you’d always have a team of two or three doctors in there. The reality? The kid was operated on by an intern. That's like giving flu medicine to someone who isn't even a pharmacist, let alone handing them a scalpel to perform surgery!
I'm not saying the intern made the mistake. The blame lies with whoever handed surgical tools to someone that unqualified. By doing that, they indirectly destroyed a young person's life. In my book, that's both professionally negligent and morally bankrupt.

I think it’s probably best if I stay away from debating medical malpractice or doctor errors altogether. My mother went in for what was supposed to be a routine procedure to remove a small cyst on her neck, but things went terribly wrong; they actually severed some nerves during the surgery, and now she’s dealing with some incredibly difficult issues with her bodily functions.
Honestly, I am just absolutely livid right now, and I’m starting to feel this overwhelming sense of panic whenever I think about doctors.

Thomas Hill2 said:The truth is, the kid was operated on by an intern!

No, actually a resident, if we’re going by what the LA Times reported.

Sure, the lead surgeon is the one on the hook, not some resident intern...
But honestly, this is just straight-up sick. Imagine showing up for what’s supposed to be a "minor" procedure, only to wake up having lost a leg. And don't even get me started on the absolute worst cases—when a surgeon decides to amputate an entire limb just because they misdiagnosed the situation or were being plain incompetent. Instead of trying a less invasive fix, they just go for the kill. People like that shouldn't just lose their licenses; they should be rotting in a federal penitentiary for a few years.

I agree, the whole system stinks. Take doctors, for instance. They work an eight-hour shift, then immediately jump straight into an eight-hour on-call rotation. If you happen to see one toward the end of a long stretch, frankly, they’ve had enough of life as it is, let alone actually caring about the patient. Even if they *did* care, how can anyone provide decent care when they're in that kind of exhausted state? The core issue is that Medicare doesn't employ nearly enough doctors. If there were more of them, we could rotate shifts properly. Instead, we have these "gentlemen" performing superhuman feats just to stay afloat, rather than being regular shift workers—though I suppose that would somehow ruin their prestige.

A resident isn't allowed to operate; they haven't specialized yet. It’s like walking into a hair salon and having some intern practice on your head, except in surgery, we aren't talking about hair—we're talking about nerves, bones, and blood vessels. I wonder if a person can actually refuse to have a resident present during their surgery at all. Technically, the surgeon is responsible, though he was probably half-asleep by the end of his shift instead of actually operating. The hospital administrator is also responsible for failing to prevent such a mess from happening. In my opinion, the administrator deserves to be stripped of their position, while the surgeon should face criminal charges, lose their license, and serve some time in prison. And since the resident took on a job they aren't legally permitted to perform, they should face prosecution as well.

Regardless, these situations will keep happening as long as our system is a total wreck. There's no doubt about it, and I seriously doubt things will improve anytime soon. Those butchers will likely walk away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist, while whether that poor man without a leg even survives remains an open question. You can try to sue them now; maybe that will help him a little. Either way, God isn't looking out for them—or so they think.

It’s a tragic story... and honestly, pretty typical for the US. I know the kid well since I grew up in the same area.
They kept feeding his parents these empty promises until things finally fell apart.
People who act like that deserve to be held accountable. 😈
The real issue is that if you live somewhere like Martha's Vineyard and get sick, you have to drive all the way to Cleveland—unless you're lucky enough to get a medevac. Half of the critical cases don't make it that trip.
And this kind of negligence? It feels like the standard across the whole country.
Nobody seems to care about anyone else anymore. 🙄
I personally have insurance that ensures I can be flown to Austria if needed (though even there, you run into some rare "gems").
If I ever have to see a doctor in the States, I hope it's the very last one... a pathologist. 😬

I find myself grappling with one particular detail that simply doesn't seem to add up... specifically, how could the aorta possibly be lacerated?
It strikes me as a bit of a biological puzzle: either this appendix is positioned in such an unusual way—perhaps being excessively long—that it reaches all the way back toward the midline to graze the aorta, or we might be working with some inaccurate data altogether.

In most clinical scenarios, the appendix typically resides within the right inguinal region (or perhaps the hypogastric area), situated retrocecalally—meaning behind the cecum—in roughly 65% of the population, while about 30% of people present with what we call a "descending position" within the lesser pelvis.

Given those anatomical norms, I am truly perplexed as to how an incision could reach the aorta.

The kid lost a leg, and honestly, he might lose his mind too.
Look, I’ve seen enough of these cases to know they happen way more often than the news lets on. Most of the time, they just sweep it under the rug. Some medical board holds a meeting, decides everything was "standard procedure," and suddenly, nothing ever comes of it.
There are independent studies out there suggesting medical malpractice is actually one of the top five leading causes of death. But usually, those deaths get filed under something else entirely. I personally know people who went through an absolute nightmare in American hospitals. They walked out in much worse shape than when they checked in.
It’s pathetic. In this country, patient rights exist perfectly fine on paper, but in the real world? Forget about it. And the arrogance of these doctors is just off the charts.

Alex Collins26 said:I know everyone makes mistakes, but honestly, we have way too many unqualified doctors over here 😠, maybe they should tighten up those medical licensing requirements because you really see some total monsters coming out of that system 😁 ...

That’s a bit rude and just plain ignorant, if you ask me.

The medical schools in major cities like Boston or Chicago are top-tier globally, and our doctors are right up there with them.
Mistakes happen everywhere, obviously. Maybe in private practice where people pay more, you get slightly better service, but I truly believe our doctors are world-class in every sense of the word.

Maybe we should actually start sharing news about similar medical mishaps happening overseas, because apparently, we Americans just love to trash our own people without even looking at the full story.

I feel terrible for that guy's boyfriend; I guess any mother would lose her mind and go after every single doctor and administrator if her child or someone she loved lost a limb like that. But honestly, those kinds of tragedies happen all over the map, not just here, despite how much our countrymen love to think otherwise.

Besides, people really ought to educate themselves on what they're talking about—for instance, there is no such thing as a "routine" surgery. Even an appendectomy isn't as trivial as people like to pretend it is.

Carol Lopez23 said:There's one thing I just can't wrap my head around... seriously, how on earth could the AORTA be severed??
I mean, either this appendix is positioned in such a weird way (and is just way too long) that it reaches all the way from the back toward the center—meaning right up to the aorta—or we're working with totally wrong information, right?

Usually, the appendix sits in the right inguinal area (or the hypogastrium) and stays retrocecal (behind the cecum) in about 65% of people, or it hangs down in the "descending position" in the small pelvis in maybe 30% of cases.

So, how is it even possible to cut the aorta??!!

Or, I don't know, maybe he had an appendix translocation? 😕
Or maybe it really was just a massive medical error. But honestly, what bugs me most is when people start acting like this only happens here, like American doctors are just incompetent and all that nonsense.
Come on, people, this kind of stuff happens everywhere... and saying American doctors are bad? I mean, I honestly don't know where people even get that idea??

There’s a damn well shortage of this specific stuff.

stormylynx14 said:The data doesn't tell us the "why" behind this. It’s totally plausible that the doctor had been on duty for 20 hours straight, pulling every kind of procedure imaginable, and just lost focus. Look, if you're sitting in a cockpit of a commercial airliner, there are strict regulations regarding physical and mental readiness, shift limits, and all that. In medicine? There's basically nothing. So yeah, don't act surprised when mistakes happen more often than they should.

I'm with you 100%! I know some brilliant young doctors over in Cleveland—I actually have a friend who’s a surgeon—and reading about this was absolutely horrifying. But honestly, I'm in total agreement with stormylynx14.

Thomas Hill2 said:stormylynx14, give me a break. That’s a hospital we're talking about, and I highly doubt any single doctor is pulling a 20-hour shift in the OR. I mean, sure, maybe if it's one marathon surgery—but even then, it’s physically impossible for one person to go at it for 20 hours straight. You’d always have two or three doctors rotating in. The reality here? The kid was operated on by an intern. We're talking about someone who probably shouldn't be trusted to hand out flu meds, let alone perform surgery on a human being!
I’m not saying it’s the intern's fault—look, they're just doing what they're told. But the person who handed surgical tools to someone that inexperienced? That’s where the real failure lies. They basically handed them a wrecking ball and watched them smash everything. To me, that isn't just unprofessional; it's straight-up immoral. You don't ruin a young person's life like that.

Thomas Hill2... if you actually took a second to read what stormylynx14 wrote, you’d see he never said doctors are performing 20-hour surgeries. He said they’re getting absolutely slaughtered on their shifts, which is a whole different beast. The real culprits? It's the people keeping us MDs on the unemployment line, blocking our access to fellowships, and then expecting the ones actually working to pull insane, multi-day shifts. We're juggling ER admissions, endless paperwork, and constant emergencies, all while being expected to stay "fit" and healthy. Give me a break. Honestly, it’s a mess that's being paid for by guys like this poor kid—and by us doctors, too.

Lawrence Robinson11 said:besides, people actually need to know what they're talking about—like, there's no such thing as a "routine" surgery. Even an appendix removal isn't some trivial little thing.

Look, us folks—you know, regular people who actually have skin in the game—we know what we're talking about... to us, any kind of surgery is terrifying and traumatic. It's just how it is. And then you've got doctors feeding us this line about it being a "routine procedure," whatever that's supposed to mean. I mean, sorry, but we only ever hear that specific phrase from them. And whoever uses it, they always say, 'the doctor told me not to worry because it's just a routine operation.'