Listen, medical malpractice is serious business. But humans tend to make strange, sometimes hilariously bad decisions. Even doctors! Now, it is one thing to miss a key detail or make the wrong decision because of fatigue or rudimentary human error. That happens. What I’m talking about are the type of unimaginable situations in which doctors accidentally sew their lunch inside a surgical patient. Here is a completely non-exhaustive list of three such cases.
The Case of the Dancing Doctor
Because surgery can be a stiff, quiet affair, Dr. Windell Boutte, a dermatologist in Georgia, decided to spice it up a little. Once her patients were deep into their anesthetic naps, Dr. Boutte became DJ Boutte, and produced full-fledged rap videos, leading to a comfy side career as a YouTube sensation. You can see some clips, including a rousing and troubling mid-liposuction edition of Flo-Rida’s “Apple Bottom Jeans” here.
Dr. Boutte now claims that her patients not only consented, but requested the videos. They wanted to “celebrate” their surgeries. And yet, Boutte is now facing complaints from over 100 women, and 7 malpractice suits have been filed against her by patients who claim the “Dancing Doctor” left them disfigured.
Let’s hold off on those sweet moves until the next big medical convention, doctors.
Follow Your Head, Not Your Heart
In 2002, Joan Morris (not her real name) went into the hospital after falling and hitting her head. Tests, of her head, revealed that she had two large aneurysms—in her head. So, of course, doctors whisked her away to have invasive heart surgery the next day.
It turns out that Joan had been slipped in to have someone else’s surgery, someone with a similar name. The surgeon only realized the mistake when the physician assigned to Joan’s case called and asked what in the world a woman with a head injury was doing having heart surgery.
It should be noted at this point that this was a teaching hospital. And what a valuable lesson they all learned that day about the basic anatomy of the human body. Heart here, head there.
Oh you already knew that? What a good student you are!
DIY
Pop quiz for all you handymen out there—in the midst of a big project, you realize you’re missing a key piece. Say, for instance, you’re performing back surgery, and realize you’ve forgotten titanium rods you were going to use to brace your patient’s back. Shucks. What to do?
Improvise!
Taking the sound advice of overly frugal uncles the world round, Dr. Robert Ricketson, decided to forego patience and just improvise his missing titanium rods. He did this by hacksawing the shaft off of a stainless-steel screwdriver and inserting that into his patient’s spine. The stainless-steel screwdriver (not as strong as titanium, it turns out) snapped days later. The patient’s family sued for millions in damages, and Dr. Ricketson was left to try and duct-tape his reputation back together.
Now you may not be the type of doctor who dances or DIYs during surgery. But you’re human! Make sure you’re properly covered for the inevitable human error that we are all prone to. Let eQuote help you with a free quote today.
