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Grandmother left permanently disfigured after hospital mistakenly removed part of her genitalia
A grandmother has spoken of the devastating moment she discovered she had undergone the wrong surgery after hospital staff allegedly confused her with another patient who shared the same first name.
Debra Buchanan, from Australia, says she was left permanently disfigured earlier this year after what was meant to be a routine operation at the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital at Sunshine Hospital.
The mistake that left a woman permanently disfigured
Buchanan had been admitted to have a cancerous skin lesion removed from her pelvic area. Instead, she says surgeons mistakenly removed a significant portion of her external genitalia after confusing her with another patient.
Recalling the events before the operation, Buchanan said staff called out the wrong name before reassuring her she was the correct patient.
“They called Deborah, and I said, ‘Did you mean Buchanan?’ And they said, ‘Oh yes, you’ll do.’”
She remembered another patient speaking up at the same time.
“The woman next to me said, ‘I’m Deborah,’ and they said, ‘Oh no, we’ve got the right one.’”
Having worked for years as a dental nurse, Buchanan said she was shocked by the way patients were being identified.
She explained that she would never have addressed a patient using only their first name in her own profession.
After surgery, Buchanan realized that something was seriously wrong when she went to the bathroom and began bleeding heavily.
“She came in, I said, ‘Can you explain why I’m bleeding so badly?’ She said, ‘Oh, that’s part of the operation.’ And I said, ‘What operation?’ I said, ‘I had it on here,’ and as I touched it, it was still there.”
A junior surgeon later examined her, but Buchanan said they appeared confused when she questioned why surgery had been carried out on a completely different part of her body.
She contacted her husband to tell him the hospital had performed the wrong procedure before eventually being discharged with what she described as very little explanation.
“I got a little bit to say that because of the two Debras, and also they were understaffed at the time. I found it very difficult to listen to,” she said.
The aftermath of the operation
Despite the horrific experience, Buchanan later had to return to the same hospital to undergo the operation she had initially required to remove the skin cancer.
“I was terrified,” she admitted.
She said the incident has had a lasting emotional impact, leaving her anxious whenever she attends medical appointments.
“Every time I have to go to the doctor, anxious; I’ve lost my confidence.”
Buchanan added: “You can’t make a mistake on a person. It’s not like breaking a cup. It’s life to them.”
Medical negligence lawyer Erin Monsalve Fear of Carbone Lawyers described the alleged mistake as almost unimaginable.
“The fact that she was never consulted nor consented appropriately for the surgery prior to it taking place, and I think that’s one of the biggest things that it boils down to,” she said.
In a statement, Western Health chief operating officer John Ferraro said patient safety remained the organization's highest priority.
“Due to our obligations to protect patient privacy and confidentiality, we are unable to comment on the care of any individual patient,” he said.
Ferraro added that, under Victoria's Statutory Duty of Candour requirements, when an adverse patient event occurs the health service provides “an apology, meet[s] with the patient, undertake[s] a review of the incident, and share[s] the findings and actions taken to help prevent a recurrence.”
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