They did not notify a patient that his other leg was amputated
The Argentine actor Beto Brandoni and the late comedian Tato Bores left a sketch for the history of black humor during which Bores visits a public hospital of which Brandoni is the director. During the tour, a patient asks for the trauma section and Brandoni instructs him how to get there. Seconds later, the noise of a saw and an object falling to the ground is heard. Then the patient appears again, already in a wheelchair and without a leg. “Excuse me, Dr., it wasn’t there” says the amputee with resignation. The mistakes are repeated until the poor man is completely mutilated.
It seems incredible but humor or fiction tend to anticipate reality. The episode of the patient at the Social Welfare Institute who had the wrong leg amputated is enough to keep the entire staff of the institute separated from their charges until a commission of notables investigates what the hell happened. Those responsible are not only subject to disciplinary, administrative or any other link contracted with the institution, but also remain within the reach of justice for the damages inflicted by such a procedural error.
The case is staying in the background due to the work and grace of the dust raised by the stable policy that occupies the entire gallery of pre, pro, proto or semi-candidacies that obscure the horizon and prevent us from clearly seeing the truly important issues.
As happens every time an act of malpractice is reported, the entire medical community closes ranks and deals with explaining things in its own way, as is happening with the case of the 78-year-old patient who was scheduled to undergo surgery right leg and ended up with the amputated left. Now they say that the change was due to verifying, already in the operating room, that the other leg was more compromised. Rare right? They do not consult with the relatives, they vary the procedure and they do not even have the courtesy to report the result post factum. The most logical thing is that someone who is going to lose nothing less than a lower extremity is sure which leg is the sickest. But they cut the other one without telling him. They call that a “communication error”.
Is it that they take us for idiots? How dare they sustain such barbarity without trembling a muscle in their face?
