Surgeons at Vietnam’s largest surgical center have been suspended after operating on the wrong leg of a patient with leg paralysis and asking his family to cover the cost of their mistake.
All hospital employees involved in the operation were placed on a forced temporary leave on Wednesday, according to Vietnam-Germany Hospital in Hanoi, which is Vietnam’s largest surgical facility.
The surgery team from Orthopedic Department 3 performed a leg operation on Tuesday aimed at restoring functions to a patient’s paralyzed left leg.
However, instead of performing the surgery on his left leg, the surgery team operated on the right one before realizing their mistake.
They then completed the surgery on the affected limb but requested additional fees, frustrating the patient’s relatives.
Answering Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters, the hospital’s spokesperson confirmed the incident, saying that the infirmary had carried out an internal investigation and will hold the medical staff concerned accountable.
The hospital will pay all treatment fees and take full responsibility to observe the patient’s health in the future, Tran Binh Giang, deputy director of Vietnam-Germany Hospital, said.
The healthcare center also arranged a meeting with the patient’s relatives on Tuesday evening, a hospital representative said, adding that the man’s right leg function has been affected to some degree after the surgery.
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