An Atlanta man who woke up from surgery at Grady Memorial Hospital to find that physicians had removed part of the wrong finger is suing the physicians who performed the operation, the hospital and Emory Healthcare.
In his lawsuit, Dwight Mitchell said he was admitted to Grady on Sept. 28, 2011 to have a portion of the middle finger on his left hand removed. The finger had been injured during an assault earlier that summer and had become infected.
The suit says Dr. Claudius Jarrett, an Emory orthopedic surgeon who was the attending physician during the operation, and Dr. Stephen Hamilton, who was also present, instead “erroneously amputated” part of his ring finger on his left hand.
Grady Health System spokeswoman Denise Simpson said the hospital would have not comment. “It is our policy not to comment on matters under litigation,” she said Friday.
Emory spokesman Vince Dollard said, “We have only just been made aware that the lawsuit has been filed and are unable to comment.”
Mitchell’s attorney, Sherrie Brady, said the construction worker thought he was “having a bad dream” when he awoke from surgery and was told part of the wrong finger had been removed.
Brady said Jarrett and Hamilton informed Mitchell and his fiancé about the error in a recovery room.
“The patient elected to return back to the operating room the same day to perform the designated procedure on the appropriate finger,” Brady said, referring to the hospital’s notes on the operations.
The attorney said physicians are expected to take certain precautions during such procedures. “They actually mark the surgery site to ensure that they have the right site and also they are suppose to take what is called a timeout in surgery to ensure that they have the right site before they actually start operating,” she said.
Brady said she is still trying to determine whether those precautions were taken. “I would think that if they’d double-checked to make sure they had the right site they would have gotten the right one,” she said. “It’s scary something so basic can happen.”
Brady said she is also trying to find out which one of the physicians did the actual amputation.
The surgeries have affected Mitchell’s ability to lead a normal life and he hasn’t worked since the operations, the attorney said. He has also suffered “incalculable pain” and emotional distress, the suit says.
“He tries to go about his life as normal as possible, but he’s definitely lost a bit of his dexterity and being able to grip things, and handle things,” Brady said. “He can still dress himself and take care of himself, but he has to have help opening things and carrying things.”
Mitchell is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.
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