1.

The Fertility Clinic that used the wrong sperm

When Nancy Andrews, of Commack, N.Y., became pregnant after an in vitro
fertilization procedure at a New York fertility clinic, she and her husband expected a
new addition to their family. What they did not expect was a child whose skin was
significantly darker than that of either parent. Subsequent DNA tests suggested that
doctors at New York Medical Services for Reproductive Medicine accidentally used
another man’s sperm to inseminate Nancy Andrews’ eggs.
The couple has since raised Baby Jessica, who was born Oct. 19, 2004, as their own,
according to wire reports. But the couple still filed a malpractice suit against the owner of the
clinic, as well as the embryologist who allegedly mixed up the samples.

2. The Surgeon who removed the wrong leg

In what was, perhaps, the most publicized case of a surgical mistake in its time, a
Tampa (Florida) surgeon mistakenly removed the wrong leg of his patient, 52-year-
old Willie King, during an amputation procedure in February 1995.
It was later revealed that a chain of errors before the surgery culminated in the wrong leg
being prepped for the procedure. While the surgeon’s team realized in the middle of the
procedure that they were operating on the wrong leg, it was already too late, and the leg was
removed. As a result of the error, the surgeon’s medical license was suspended for six months
and he was fined $10,000. University Community Hospital in Tampa, the medical center
where the surgery took place, paid $900,000 to King and the surgeon involved in the case
paid an additional $250,000 to King.

3.An open heart invasive procedure… on the wrong

patient
Joan Morris (a pseudonym) is a 67-year-old woman admitted to a teaching hospital for
cerebral angiography. The day after that procedure, she mistakenly underwent an invasive
cardiac electrophysiology study. After angiography, the patient was transferred to another
floor rather than returning to her original bed. Discharge was planned for the following day.
The next morning, however, the patient was taken for a open heart procedure. The patient
had been on the operating table for an hour. Doctors had made an incision in her groin,
punctured an artery, threaded in a tube and snaked it up into her heart (a procedure with
risks of bleeding, infection, heart attack and stroke). That was when the phone rang and a
doctor from another department asked “what are you doing with my patient?” There was
nothing wrong with her heart. The cardiologist working on the woman checked her chart, and
saw that he was making an awful mistake. The study was aborted, and she was returned to
her room in stable condition.