1) Dana Carvey Bypasses Wrong Artery

In 2001, USA Today reported one of the more well known cases of medical malpractice
happened to Saturday Night Live alumni, Dana Carvey. Roughly two months after the double
bypass operation that was suppose to preserve his life, Mr. Carvey received the news that the
surgeon had bypassed one of the wrong arteries. The surgeon, who performed the surgery, stated
that it was an honest mistake that occurred due to the unusual positioning of Mr. Carvey's artery
in his heart. Dana Carvey felt quite differently, and subsequently, he filed a $7.5 million lawsuit
against the surgeon and the hospital.

2) Doctors Perform Heart Surgery on Wrong Patient

It would be quite easy for most readers to dismiss the aforementioned case as an anomaly. Before
disregarding its merits, consider the following two cases. A 67 year old woman, who was given
the pseudonym of Joan Morris, was admitted to a teaching hospital to have a cerebral
angiography performed. After the procedure was completed, Ms. Morris was returned to a
hospital room on a different floor than her original one. Instead of being discharged as planned
the next morning, she was whisked away to have an open heart procedure performed. After
having been upon the operating table for over an hour, a doctor from a different department
called and asked what they were doing with his patient. Once the mistake was realized, the
procedure was canceled, and Ms. Morris was returned to her room in stable condition; however,
the potential consequences of the extra surgery performed included significantly increased risks
of heart attack, stroke, internal bleeding and infections.

3) Surgeon Drills Hole on Wrong Side of Head

In a similar manner, surgeons at the Rhode Island Hospital performed surgery on the wrong side
of a patient's head, for the third time in one calendar year. This particular incident occurred in
November of 2007. An 82 year old patient required the operation to stem the flow of bleeding
from her brain to her skull. The surgeon immediately started the procedure off incorrectly by
drilling a hole on the wrong side of the patient's skull. This action occurred despite the fact that a
CAT scan, performed only moments before, indicated that the bleeding was happening on the left
side of the brain. The mistake was caught early on, and the resident surgeon closed the initial
hole and proceeded to the correct side of the patient's head. Although the patient survived the
surgery in fair condition, two other similar incidents had occurred within the last year, one of
which had resulted in the death of an 86 year old man.

4) Girl Dies from Incompatible Blood Type

While these cases are appalling in and of themselves, an individual would think that most doctors
would ensure that these types of mistakes did not occur when children were involved.
Unfortunately, the exact opposite is true. Take the case of JesicaSantillan for example. CBS
News unveiled the story of a seventeen year old girl, who was originally from Mexico, who had
been in the United States for three years, seeking medical treatment for a life threatening heart
condition. A heart and lung transplant was scheduled to be performed at Duke University
Medical Center, in Durham, North Carolina. The surgeons who performed the procedure failed to
check the compatibility of the donor's blood type with Jesica's. A second transplant, meant to
rectify the mistake made during the original operation, caused complications to occur, which sent
Jesica into a coma. Brain damage and other complications caused her death to occur two weeks
later. The hospital stated that human error was to blame for Jesica's death.

5) Woman Seeks Abortion Only to Birth Premature Baby

Another case, involving a teenager named Sycloria Williams, occurred in Florida, according to
sources presented by CNN. Ms. Williams sought to have an abortion, which was to be performed
at the A Gyn Diagnostic Center. Rather than having the prescribed abortion, an unlicensed doctor
was permitted to give Ms. Williams a medication that caused her to deliver a baby girl, who was
extremely pre term. According to the patient, her child was born alive. Although the child died
shortly thereafter, it took detectives quite awhile to find her remains. The man who performed
the medical procedure was charged with tampering with evidence, practicing medicine without a
license, and several other various charges.

6) Fertility Clinic Confuses DNA

In a similar story, with a different twist, a fertility clinic in New York impregnated Nancy
Andrews, not with the sperm of her husband, but with the sperm of a complete stranger. Rather
than giving birth to a child that resembled both of her parents, Baby Jessica, who was born in
October of 2004, had significantly darker skin. Subsequent DNA tests revealed that Baby
Jessica's biological parent was of African descent. Although the Andrews have kept Jessica and
are raising her as their own, the couple has filed a medical malpractice suit against the fertility
clinic and against the embryologist who reportedly accidentally switched the samples.

7) Doctors Ignore Patient Symptoms Resulting in Death

Although these mistakes are horrific enough, there are instances where a patient is unable to even
be seen by a doctor before succumbing to their illnesses. One of the most well known cases is
that of Esmin Green. Ms. Green visited the emergency room of Kings County Hospital, located
in Brooklyn, New York. On that day in June of 2008, Ms. Green waited almost twenty four hours
to be attended to by a physician. Eventually, she collapsed on the floor of the emergency room.
Others patients in the emergency room reported that employees of the hospital watched the
patient lashing about on the floor, but they did nothing to intervene or alleviate the patient's
distress. Subsequently, Ms. Green died on the floor of the emergency room.

8) Man Remains Conscious During Exploratory Surgery

It would seem to be a horrific storyline from a medical drama on television. In the script, a
patient awakens during surgery, but is unable to communicate to the surgeons or nurses that he or
she is awake and can feel every ounce of pain during the surgery. This situation actually occurred
to Sherman Sizemore, a 73 year old Baptist minister from West Virginia. The surgery was
originally supposed to explore the cause of the man's continual abdominal pain. During the
surgery, Mr. Sizemore experienced a rare condition known as anesthetic awareness. Essentially,
he was able to feel all of the pain, discomfort, and pressure during the surgery. The
anesthesiologists present during the surgery did not give Mr. Sizemore the general anesthetic that
would have rendered him unconscious until 16 minutes after the surgery began. Family members
contend that the trauma of the experience led the minister to kill himself two weeks after the
surgery.

9) Surgeons Forget Their Tools Inside Patient

Donald Church, 49, was lucky enough to have had the anesthesia correctly administered during
his June 2000 surgery at Washington Medical Center in 2000. The surgery was intended to have
removed a tumor located in his abdomen. The tumor was removed. In its stead was left another
souvenir, a 13 inch long metal retractor. Doctors at the hospital admitted to accidentally leaving
the retractor inside of Mr. Church. It was not the first time that such an "accident" had occurred
in the hospital. Four other documented incidences had happened at the hospital between the
years of 1997 and 2000. The retractor was removed shortly after its discovery, and Mr. Church
did not suffer any long term health effects from the mistake. A settlement was reached between
the two parties for the amount of $97,000.

10) Wrong Leg Amputated

In the aforementioned case, Mr. Church was fortunate enough to avoid any long term medical
consequences for the surgeons' mistakes. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for a separate
case involving Mr. Willie King. In 1995, the 52 year old Mr. King was admitted to University
Community Hospital in Tampa, Florida to have his leg amputated. During the procedure, the
wrong leg was amputated. By the time the surgeons realized their mistake, it was too late to
reverse the damage caused, and the leg had to be removed. The attending surgeon was fined
$10,000, and his medical license was revoked for six months. The hospital paid Mr. King
$900,000, and the surgeon personally paid him another $250,000. The hospital admitted that a
chain of errors culminated in the wrong leg being prepped for the surgery.

11) Functioning Kidney Removed

Mr. Church's case is not an isolated one. Surgeons at the Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital, in St.
Louis Park, Minnesota, removed the wrong kidney in a patient during surgery. The patient was to
have one kidney removed, because it was believed that the kidney had a tumor, which was
thought to be cancerous. The discovery of the horrific mistake was uncovered when the
pathologist on call at the hospital examined the removed kidney and discovered no evidence of
cancer. Fortunately for the patient, the suspect kidney remained intact and functioning. Per the
family's request, no more details were released about the incident.

12) Testicular Cancer Risk Treatment Gone Wrong

In another case involving similar mistakes, Mr. Benjamin Houghton suffered the loss of his one
healthy testicle. The forty seven year old patient was a veteran of the Air Force, who had been
complaining of pain and shrinkage in his left testicle. Due to concerns about the risk of cancer,
the decision was made for surgeons at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center to remove the
diseased testicle. During the procedure, the healthy, right testicle was removed by accident.
Later, it was revealed that a chain of errors, from errors on the patient consent form to failure on
the part of the medical staff to properly mark the correct surgical site, resulted in the accident.
Mr. Houghton and his wife, consequently, filed a $200,000 lawsuit against the hospital and the
surgeons involved.