A Washington man who went into surgery to have his appendix removed went home with more pain than before the operation — and with his appendix still intact. Turns out the surgeons had trouble finding his appendix, so they removed part of his bowel instead. He is now suing the University of Washington Medical Center and two of its surgeons — Nidhi Udyavar and Paul Herman.
From USA Today:
According to the suit, George Piano visited the hospital’s emergency room on Dec. 6, for abdominal pain, was diagnosed with appendicitis, and taken into surgery so doctors could remove his appendix.
But during surgery, the suit claims, doctors were unable to locate the patient’s appendix and, instead, removed a part of his bowel.
“Following surgery, Mr. Piano began to experience abdominal pain which was worse than before his surgery,” his attorneys Ed Moore and Van Shaw wrote in a press release. “The bowel contents began to spill into his abdominal cavity causing him to become much sicker.”
Two days later, according to the release, Piano was advised that a CT scan revealed his appendix was never removed during the surgery. On Dec. 8, Piano went back into surgery at the same hospital and doctors removed his appendix.
Piano said that over the last year, he spent 53 days in the hospital, lost about 40 pounds, has anxiety and has suffered short-term memory loss as a result of the alleged medical mishap.
Piano told USA Today he initially did not want to file a lawsuit, but “after getting no response from the hospital,” he felt it was his best option. “We didn’t want it to happen to someone else,” he explained. “Someone needed to put a stop to this and take responsibility and say this happened − we need to take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
