Doctor disciplined for letting resident start surgery on wrong hip
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Courtesy of Associated Press |
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BOSTON (AP) _ The state board that licenses physicians has disciplined a Worcester orthopedic surgeon for allowing a resident to start a hip surgery on the wrong hip.
Dr. Bruce G. French of the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center has been admonished by the Board of Registration in Medicine. He also must undergo continuing education as a result of the incident.
The patient, a 36-year-old man, was to undergo surgery for a fractured left hip at UMass Medical Center in 1999.
French, who was not the patient's regular surgeon, agreed to supervise a resident who was working on the patient until the regular surgeon arrived
The board said the resident began working on the man's right hip. Neither the resident nor French reviewed the patient's per-operative consent form and preoperative X-rays, or marked the area to be operated on, the board said.
The mistake was discovered by a member of the operating room staff, and the surgery was halted before the surgeons had penetrated the femoral head of the right hip with guide wires.
The man's left hip was properly repaired, but he suffered postoperative pain in his right hip as a result of the error.
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