by NEILKAHN » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:35 pm
It really does not happen very often that a surgery is done on the wrong patient or part of the body, but when it does, it is spectacularly bad, hence the layers of redundance in the preparatory process. I recall a few years ago, the Chairman of the Department of Opthalmology at Emory took out a good eye and left the cancer containing eye on some poor soul. He lost his position as Chairman, of course, and I shudder to think what the payout was for the guy left blind by this little oops.