Parents Outraged After Doctor Performed Surgery on Their Newborn By Mistake

[kellyhound]

Lebanon, TN - The baby was perfect, healthy and beautiful.

Just hours after delivery, baby Nate was moved from the recovery room with his mother to a nursery at University Medical Center in Lebanon, Tennessee.

That's where a doctor mistakenly performed a surgical procedure on Nate that was meant for another child.

When told of the mistake Nate's mother, Jennifer Melton, lost it. "At that point I began to cry hysterically," she said.

Malpractice attorney Clint Kelly says the doctor performed a frenulectomy. The physician goes in with a scissors to cut skin to free the tongue in a child who is tongue tied.

"It's reckless," Kelly said. "There's no excuse for cutting on a healthy child or mixing things up at a hospital."

"I felt like someone took him from me and took him from the nursery and did what they want with him," Melton said.

It's unclear how the mix-up occurred. But Nate's case begs the question: Should babies -- as standard procedure -- be put in hospital nurseries? If Nate had just been left with his mother, Kelly says this all never would have happened.

"How can you prevent a doctor or nurse from cutting on your child if you are not there with them?," Melton asked.

There is a growing trend nationally in hospitals to set up a mini-nursery for the child in the mother's room. Of course, there would be exceptions.

But what happened to Nate is now sure to feed the transition away from separate nurserys for healthy infants.

http://www.wltx.com/story/news/healt...born/80284240/

[Susan]

And the stupid surgeon couldn't tell when he opened the baby's mouth and saw the baby was not tongue tied?

[icheerthebull]

Fuck!!! Was this fuck over worked? Was he on the tail end of a 96hr week? Heartbreaking stuff that would need a serious amount of fucking explaining

[a175]

Originally Posted by slyksleevemuckyey

And the stupid surgeon couldn't tell when he opened the baby's mouth and saw the baby was not tongue tied?

Exactly what I was thinking.
What the hell did he think he was cutting?
This is like something you'd see at a VA hospital.

[Oswald2001]

Originally Posted by slyksleevemuckyey

And the stupid surgeon couldn't tell when he opened the baby's mouth and saw the baby was not tongue tied?

It's all about money.



If the surgeon had not conducted the surgery, there would have been no surgery fee.


Also, the parents of the child are angling for the largest settlement amount that they think that they can get.



'Cause...it's all about money.

[peema]

Makes me curious as of what exactly the doc did if there was nothing to cut.

[kellyhound]

Last November.

LEBANON, Tenn. - A patient has sued University Medical Center in Lebanon over what he claims happened during a visit to the emergency room.

A lawnmower accident left two three-inch gashes a quarter inch deep in Billy Pemberton's arm. It was painful and required stitches, but he said what happened next at the hospital made things even worse.


"It was on fire. Just burning. Non-stop on fire," said Pemberton. "This is outright malpractice if there ever was one. There's no excuse for it," said attorney Clint Kelly.

Pemberton and his wife rushed to emergency at University Medical Center in Lebanon. "There's mistakes and there's bad mistakes. This is a bad mistake," said Kelly.

Kelly has filed a lawsuit. He said the doctor and staff in emergency went to clean the wound before stitching Pemberton up.

Nothing wrong with that, except the lawsuit alleges the hospital used a product called CaviCide. "This is a federally regulated toxic substance," said Kelly.

CaviCide is a disinfectant used to clean hospitals, but, "It says in black and white not to be used in humans," said Kelly.

According to the lawsuit, the CaviCide bottle was left in an examination room and the chemical was used on Pemberton's arm.

"The doctor sprayed it. Stitched it up," said Pemberton. He said he was in agony. He said the burning far worse than anything he'd ever felt before from an antiseptic.

"I grabbed the bottle went into the hallways and said to a nurse is this okay if I spray this on an open wound and she said no," said Pemberton.

At that point, Kelly says the hospital staff knew what happened. "They call it an accident, but the mistake was recognized," said Kelly.

According to the lawsuit, the doctor and staff then removed the stitches, rinsed the wound, and re-sutured it.

Yet, Pemberton said he still needed to be treated for chemical burns. "All of it is just blistered red," he said.

Months later, the arm has healed, but there are scares from both the cut and the burns.

"It was in an emergency room and the product of sloppy care," said Kelly who has sued the hospital for negligence.

Lawyers for University Medical Center declined to comment for our story because of the pending litigation.

[commondenom]

so he performed a completely unnecessary surgery on a baby, the attorney says "There's no excuse for cutting on a healthy child." but i bet that attorney has had his sons circumcised....unnecessarily

[Pyramid_Head]

Just unbelievable, like how do you fuck up that bad?

[Spiritual]

Things are a bit different here in UK, we don't often get private rooms or an in hospital nursery and the babies are usually with us with all the other new babies and new mums on the maternity recovery ward. I remember never seeing a doctor, just midwife's. They aren't as "corporate medical" out here. Still, accidents happen everywhere and NHS is far from perfect. I am glad it was something very minor, stupid doctor could have messed up and done heart surgery or something.