‘HUMAN ERROR’

Austrian Hospital’s ‘Tragic Mistake’: Amputating the Wrong Leg of an Elderly Man

“A disastrous combination of circumstances led to the patient’s right leg being amputated instead of his left,” the hospital said.

An Austrian hospital has admitted to mistakenly removing the wrong leg of an elderly man, CNN reports. The 82-year-old man was scheduled to have his left leg removed but as a result of “human error,” a worker incorrectly marked his right leg, Freistadt Clinic said in a statement. The man had experienced “numerous medical conditions” that warranted the amputation surgery, and officials say doctors removed the correct leg after the first operation. The hospital says it has alerted prosecutors about the incident and is offering the patient and his family psychological support. “A disastrous combination of circumstances led to the patient’s right leg being amputated instead of his left,” a hospital statement reads. “We would also like to affirm that we will be doing everything to unravel the case, to investigate all internal processes and critically analyze them. Any necessary steps will immediately be taken.”