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• Bury

I am an Operating room RN. Have worked in this capacity for close to 15 years. The main persons at fault were the persons who checked the patient into pre-op. They should have asked what part of his body was going to be operated on, in this case left or right. They should have asked the patient to verify this part. They should have marked this part with some type of marking. The surgeon should have verified the marking when he interviewed the patient before going into surgery. When the ORRN interviewed the patient before going into the OR, he or she should have looked at the H&P and double checked as to what side was to be operated on. When the patient arrived in the operating room there should have been a "surgical pause" or some other other "stop" to have all personal approve of the side to be operated on. From anesthesia to scrub tech to surgeon to Circulating nurse, all must agree what side is to be operated on. If this was not done all are liable! The forgoing scenario is what a good hospital will demand. I have done this many times and on my own before the standards came into being did this on my own. I have prevented a number of incidents like this because of vigilance on my part and my training.Sure, takes a bit more time but it sure beats the litigation and apologies and awarding of money to the plaintiff along with punitive damages. Americans sometime complain about excessive awards in litigation but here is a good example why the system should not change. BTW only about 1% of litigation results in monetary awards to plaintiffs.Most cases are decided before trial or thrown out because of not enough evidence or some other reason.

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