A Nobel laureate in medicine has weighed in on the recent lawsuit filed by a widow against a doctor, accusing him of removing the wrong organ during her late husband's surgery.
Dr. Barry Marshall, the 2005 Nobel Prize recipient in Physiology or Medicine, expressed his thoughts on the matter via the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
"I hate it when that happens - glad I'm not a surgeon, it's very tricky stuff. Man dies after liver removed instead of spleen. It happens more often than you think," Marshall wrote on Wednesday, according to Newsweek. He was referring to the case of Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, who was alleged to have mistakenly removed the liver of 70-year-old Bill Bryan during a laparoscopic splenectomy, a procedure intended for spleen removal, on August 21. The lawsuit alleges that Shaknovsky mislabeled the liver as the spleen. Bryan's widow, Beverly, is now suing Shaknovsky and Florida's Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital.
When asked for comment, Marshall found the incident "too incredible to be true". He added, "Spleen is left, liver is right - but sometimes not!" Marshall is renowned for his discovery of a bacteria that causes gastritis and ulcers.
Regrettably, such incidents are not unheard of. In 2007, Rhode Island Hospital was the scene of three separate incidents where neurosurgeons performed brain surgery on the wrong side of the brain, as reported by CBS. The first two patients survived, but the third did not. ABC News later reported that one of the doctors was suspended, but only after the second incident.
Another case of surgical error occurred at a Veterans Administration hospital in Los Angeles in 2007. An Air Force veteran, who had previously battled cancer in 1989, was scheduled to have his left testicle removed due to potential cancerous cells. However, the surgeon mistakenly removed the healthy testicle, leading to a decrease in testosterone production. This could potentially result in "sexual dysfunction, depression, fatigue, weight gain and osteoporosis" in the long term, as reported by the LA Times.
In an effort to prevent such incidents, the U.S. Joint Commission held a summit in 2003 and developed The Universal Protocol for Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, and Wrong Person Surgery. This protocol aims to ensure doctors double-check everything before operating, with an "ongoing process of information gathering and verification" and constant team communication being integral parts of the procedure.
The tragic case of Bill Bryan underscores the importance of these protocols and the dire consequences that can arise when they are not strictly adhered to. It serves as a stark reminder of the critical role that precision and accuracy play in the field of medicine, particularly in surgical procedures.
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