Hong Kong brain surgeon operates on wrong side of patient’s skull
The medical mistake was promptly corrected and the patient’s family informed, according to the Hospital Authority; a probe is under way
A serious medical blunder at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in which a doctor operated on the wrong side of a patient’s skull, has led to an investigation by the facility.
The doctor cut open the left side of a woman’s skull, when it was actually the right side that was bleeding and in need of surgery.
The 54-year-old woman was transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Tuesday night.
A brain scan conducted the next day showed that the patient suffered from an aneurysm in the right brain causing an increase in intracranial pressure.
The woman was battling a critical and life-threatening situation.
“The neurosurgeon arranged an urgent craniotomy to drain the cerebrospinal fluid to release high intracranial pressure, but removed a bone flap on the left side of the skull inadvertently,” the Hospital Authority said in a statement on Friday.