Worst Medical Malpractice Stories in History

Providence’s Rhode Island Hospital had three doctors botch brain surgery on three patients, all the same way. In 2007, the hospital received a $50,000 fine for the third time performing brain surgery on the wrong side of a patient's brain.

Two patients survived, but one passed. This led to an investigation and the fine.

Rhode Island Hospital failed another patient.Carl Beauchamp's symptoms went unnoticed in the list 'Worst Medical Malpractice Stories in History'.In 2009, Beauchamp was admitted after hitting his head. Staff then made mistakes: they misdiagnosed him, failed to check on him, neglected to see his condition worsen, and did not perform needed exams.

Beauchamp suffered lasting damage. In 2015, his family won an eight-figure judgment against the hospital.

Yale-New Haven Medical Center surgeons performed the procedure.Surgeons operated on Deborah Craven.In May 2015, surgeons removed potentially cancerous parts of one of her ribs. Instead, they took a different rib, and Craven claimsthey lied, trying to hide the error before rushing her back into surgery that same day to fix it.

She sued the hospital and many surgeons, claiming negligence.

In 1999, the bodybuilder and former Mr. Mexico performed the procedure.Alexander Baez performed the procedure.Baez fell for a fake doctor scheme during pectoral implants. He got female breast implants instead. The fake doctor, Reinaldo Silvestre (pictured), apparently botched other patients before police caught him.

When caught, he was ordered to pay almost $5 million.

The term " was involved.Anesthesia awareness occurred during eye surgery." does not fix the nightmare of waking up during surgery. This happens rarely, but it occurs in about one to two out of every 1,000 patients given a general sedative to be knocked out. Carol Weihrer woke up during her eye operation, hearing surgeons say things like "Cut deeper" and "Pull harder." She felt no pain because the sedative and pain blockers work differently, but she developed PTSD and could not sleep flat.

She sued the hospital and won an undisclosed judgment.

A diabetic construction worker lost the wrong leg.Willie King lost the wrong leg.Willie King went to the hospital for his left leg removal below the knee because it was turning gangrenous. A chain of errors started right away; the scheduler wrote down that King was to lose his right leg. The mistake went unnoticed, and doctors actually took the wrong leg. He later had the left leg removed at another hospital and got $1.15 million after suing the first hospital.

The doctor who did the first wrong surgery on King struck again months later by removing a woman's toewithout her permission.He received a fine and suspension.

Arturo Iturralde, a used a screwdriver for spine stability.a 73-year-old Hawaii residentA screwdriver was used for spine stability during supposed routine back surgery. The surgeon lacked the titanium rods from the kit. Instead, he used a hacksaw to cut the screwdriver's shaft and inserted it into Iturralde to brace the spine. The shaft broke days later, leaving Iturralde in severe pain.

He needed three more surgeries and died within two years. The doctor and hospital faced a $5.6 million judgment.

Ordinary people on Medicare face severe medical malpractice risks. Celebrities also fall into these errors and become targets of negligence. Bestselling novelistOlivia Goldsmith.Olivia Goldsmith passed due to sedation complications during routine cosmetic surgery.

Comedian Joan Rivers.Joan Rivers passed following a botched endoscopy and laryngoscopy. Doctors missed dramatic changes in her vital signs for about 15 minutes.Doctors missed dramatic changes in Joan Rivers' vital signs for about 15 minutes during a laryngoscopy.

Being set on fire ranks high among bad things during surgery. The FDA reports surgical fires happen 550 to 650 times yearly. These fires cause major harm to patients and staff. PatientJanice McCall.Janice McCall burned during an "accidental flash fire" in surgery and passed a week later.

Enrique Ruiz.Enrique Ruiz also suffered severe burns. Sparks from an electronic scalpel ignited his oxygen supply.

Doctors thought the intense pain was extreme.Daryoush Mazarei.Daryoush Mazarei complained of post-surgery issues. The problem was in his lower abdomen, not his head. A 10-inch retractor had been left there two years prior. The device poked under his ribs, but doctors doubted it because such devices are rare (about 1,500 times out of 30 million surgeries annually).

When the retractor appeared on a CT scan, Mazarei sued and got the device removed.

The tragic story of Jesica Santillan.Jesica Santillan shows how many things can go wrong in surgery, from complex to simple. Jesica, aged 17, needed a heart and double lung transplant. The surgery was hard, but something any medical professional should have caught ended her.

Jesica Santillan had type O blood but received organs from someone with type A blood. Her antibodies attacked the new organs. She fell asleep and died two weeks later.

A four-year-old Jesse Matlock needed surgery on his right eye to stop it from drifting. The surgeon operated on his left eye instead. She realized the error just as the operation ended.

The surgeon then operated on the right eye. Luckily, the left eye showed no lasting damage.

A seventy-year-old Brit.Graham Reeves.He survived the Korean War. Doctors botched his kidney operation years later. They removed his healthy kidney instead of his failing one. He passed five weeks after further surgery and dialysis.

Surgeons who mishandled the procedure faced charges. They were dismissed after a two-week trial.

Air Force veteran.Benjamin Houghton.Benjamin Houghton went to his local VA hospital to remove his left testicle because doctors thought it was cancer. The hospital removed the right one, leaving him unable to get the correct one taken out.

He and his family sued for about $200,000.

Mother of two.Kim Tutt.Kim Tutt, 34, seemed healthy when she got bad news after a dentist visit: she had jaw cancer and would die in six months. Doctors said a big surgery taking part of her lower jaw and replacing it with bone from her leg might give her a few more months.

Tutt had the surgery to get more time with her kids. Then, she learned her biopsy was fake; she never had cancer. Tutt then had five more surgeries, lost nine teeth, and became permanently disfigured.

One famous surgery gone wrong involved comedian.Dana Carvey.The former.Saturday Night Live.Saturday Night Live cast member suffered severe chest pain. He had three operations to clear a coronary artery, but the pain stayed. Testing later showed the surgeon bypassed the wrong artery, putting Carvey at high risk for heart failure.

Another doctor performed the procedure correctly. Carvey sued the first doctor, who settled.

Donald Church.Donald Church went to a Seattle hospital for abdominal tumor removal. He left with a 13-inch retractor still inside. The device left his body soon after, and Church had no problems.

Church still won nearly $100,000 against the hospital. That hospital had settled four other "left behind object" cases in the last decade.

Not all medical malpractice involves surgeons. Harvard medical student.Paul.Lozano.Paul Lozano ended his life after his relationship with his therapist ended badly. Psychiatrist Margaret Bean-Bayog made Lozano undergo an untested treatment plan where she tried to make him believe she was his mother to help him deal with past sexual abuse.

An investigation found Bean-Bayog's notes detailed graphic encounters with a patient matching Lozano's description. The 28-year-old patient killed himself months after their sessions stopped. Bean-Bayog quit her license and paid a $1 million settlement to his family.

A terrible tragedy struck an expectant mother.Kerry Higuera.A woman went to a Glendale, Arizona ER, worried about a miscarriage. A nurse asked if she was Kerry; she said yes. Then, they put her on a scanner and gave her an abdominal CT scan—a move against best practices for pregnant women. The hospital found they mixed Higuera up with another woman named Kerry who was the same age.

This mistake put Higuera's child at risk for stunted growth, tumors, and failure to thrive.

He suffered severe harm during a skydiving incident.Josh Nahum.He stayed in the ICU for six weeks, then recovered. He caught a rare Gram-negative bacterial infection in his spinal fluid. This caused extreme pressure around his brain, leaving him a quadriplegic before he died two weeks later.

Most medical malpractice happens by accident or through carelessness. Sometimes, a doctor commits outright deceit.Farid Fata misdiagnosed people with cancer.Farid Fata admitted in court he ran a scheme. He intentionally misdiagnosed people with cancer, then gave them costly chemotherapy and radiation. This brought him a lot of money.

When he was caught, he gave unnecessary infusions or injections to 553 patients and billed over $150 million falsely. He received a sentence ofFarid Fata served 45 years in prison..

A 67-year-oldJoan Morris.Joan Morris had successful surgery to fix two brain aneurysms after hitting her head. Then, staff rushed her to the ER and prepped her for open-heart surgery she did not need.

An hour into the procedure, Morris's doctor stopped the drastic operation. The intervention saved her. Medical staff mislabeled Joan Morris as 77-year-old Jane Morrison, who did need the heart surgery.