Surgery and recovery from surgery is daunting and difficult at the best of times, but when something goes wrong it can be particularly challenging. This is especially true if a procedure is carried out at the wrong surgical site.
Wrong site surgery is a general term that describes situations where surgical error has occurred due to a procedure being performed on the wrong body part, on the wrong side of the body, or on the wrong organ.
It can also include:
• injecting into the wrong place
• removing the wrong body part
• taking biopsies from the wrong part of the body
• surgical intervention performed on the wrong patient.
Wrong site surgery falls into the category of a ‘never event’; it is something which should never happen.
