Top 10 Shocking True Stories About Surgery Gone WRONG
These medical horror stories are guaranteed to make you squirm. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re discussing terrible cases of surgeries going awry with terrible consequences.
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00:00Doctor, how does he look?
00:02Terrible. He's been on bypass too long.
00:04Let's press a new organ.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're taking a closer look
00:08at the most shocking, disturbing, and
00:10high-profile mistakes made during
00:12surgery, including major problems
00:14involving those in the public eye
00:16as well as the most infamous medical malpractice
00:18cases involving the general public.
00:20The typical situation
00:22that is what
00:24happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
00:26That's also true about the surgical suite.
00:28Dana Carvey's
00:30botched heart surgery.
00:32How could he get the wrong artery, and you said,
00:34I'm going to teach them a lesson. Well, I just want them
00:36to be accountable.
00:38Known primarily as an SNL
00:40comedian, and for the role of Garth
00:42Algar in Wayne's World,
00:44Dana Carvey made the news for altogether
00:46different and more concerning reasons
00:48in the late 90s. He underwent major
00:50heart surgery to address a blocked artery,
00:52but during the operation at a California
00:54hospital, the surgeons mistakenly
00:56bypassed the wrong artery.
00:58But the stents were kind of
01:00sort of bare metal, and sometimes they would
01:02re-stenose, which means the
01:04artery was not prepared for a controlled
01:06injury inside it, so it would build scar tissue.
01:08As a result, the procedure did
01:10nothing. Carvey continued to experience
01:12the chest pain that he'd suffered beforehand,
01:14and so he required a second
01:16procedure to correct the mistake.
01:18After his clearly unnecessarily
01:20elongated recovery, Carvey filed
01:22a lawsuit and was reportedly awarded
01:24$7.5 million, which he
01:26donated to charity. I'm very
01:28grateful, really, because
01:30when you have a 100%
01:32blocked widow-maker
01:34lower anterior descending
01:36artery at 42, you don't know how long you're gonna
01:38be around, and my sons are now
01:40young men, so I'm very grateful to be
01:42able to be around at this time in their
01:44life. Linda McDougall's
01:46double mastectomy mistake.
01:48In 2002, Linda McDougall
01:50underwent a double mastectomy, thinking
01:52that she had been diagnosed with an aggressive breast
01:54cancer. That diagnosis, though,
01:56was incorrect. The misdiagnosis
01:58occurred due to a reported
02:00mix-up in her medical records at United
02:02Hospital of St. Paul, Minnesota.
02:04What we've seen in the last
02:06decade or so is a downturn
02:08in the number of women choosing to
02:10preserve the breast, and an
02:12upturn in the number of women choosing
02:14actually to remove both breasts.
02:16Another patient's test results
02:18were mistakenly attributed to her,
02:20leading to her being the one who was
02:22operated on. Following the surgery,
02:24McDougall was informed that she'd
02:26never had cancer, and that the
02:28entire operation had been unnecessary.
02:30I do think it's important
02:32for patients and for physicians
02:34not to make these decisions
02:36based just on fear or your
02:38initial gut reaction when
02:40you hear the diagnosis of breast cancer.
02:42Willie King's wrong-sight
02:44surgery. Willie King
02:46went into surgery in Florida in
02:481995 for a leg amputation
02:50due to complications from diabetes.
02:52However, he woke up from the
02:54procedure to discover that the surgeons
02:56had taken the wrong leg.
02:58Upon investigation, it was found
03:00that the catastrophic error had occurred
03:02due to a series of miscommunications
03:04and failures in the preoperative
03:06process. Multiple members of
03:08the hospital staff were implicated as
03:10the wrong leg was marked, prepped,
03:12and ultimately removed.
03:14Disciplinary actions included a lengthy
03:16ban for the lead surgeon,
03:18while King received a substantial settlement
03:20from the hospital, which admitted the mistake.
03:22But again, it goes down in history
03:24as a terrible case that
03:26prompted widespread reform in terms
03:28of checklists and protocol.
03:30It's crucial that all rehabilitation
03:32measures are begun as soon as possible,
03:34regardless of the amputation
03:36level. Olivia Goldsmith's
03:38fatal chin tuck. The best-selling
03:40author Olivia Goldsmith was
03:42renowned for her 1992 novel
03:44The First Wives Club, which became
03:46the 1996 movie of the same
03:48name, starring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn,
03:50and Diane Keaton.
03:52I'm Monique's mother. Yes, but Jason's gonna go
03:54off to college pretty soon, and then I'll be even more
03:56alone. Plus, I'll be really a lot
03:58older, okay? Tragedy struck
04:00in 2004, however, when
04:02Goldsmith attended cosmetic surgery
04:04for a reported chin tuck.
04:06It should have been routine, but the writer
04:08suffered a severe adverse reaction
04:10to the anesthesia administered at the beginning,
04:12which caused her to lapse into
04:14a coma. She never regained consciousness
04:16and died shortly afterwards.
04:18At the time, her shocking death
04:20brought to light the inherent risks
04:22involved in even seemingly minor
04:24cosmetic surgeries.
04:26You spent your whole life with people sucking up to you!
04:28I'm sure Annie will agree with me
04:30when I say your perception
04:32of life is somewhat altered!
04:34Bob East's wrong injection.
04:36In 1985,
04:38Bob East had recently retired from
04:40a long and distinguished career as a news photographer,
04:42notably for the Miami Herald.
04:44Unfortunately, he'd been diagnosed
04:46with corneal cancer, which
04:48made it necessary to remove one of his eyes.
04:50How can I do what I do
04:52now? Well, let's say that I did spend
04:54an awful lot of time in the prison
04:56library. Now, that was a great
04:58way to avoid some of the more implicit
05:00aspects of prison life.
05:02East would ultimately lose his life
05:04during the operation, though, due to a
05:06catastrophic mix-up of chemicals
05:08in the operating room. Surgeons
05:10shot glutaraldehyde, a substance
05:12similar to the preservative formaldehyde,
05:14into East's spine, believing
05:16that they were administering spinal fluid.
05:18The mistake caused the patient to fall
05:20into a coma, leaving him brain-dead.
05:22His family opted to remove
05:24life support a few days later.
05:26If you take him off before then,
05:28you'll go blind.
05:30Understand? Arturo
05:32Iteralde's deadly back surgery.
05:34They went to reach for
05:36the titanium rods
05:38which they had intended to
05:40implant into his spine,
05:42and they discovered they were
05:44not there. When in 2001,
05:4673-year-old Arturo
05:48Iteralde entered Hilo
05:50Hospital in Hawaii with back pain,
05:52he likely trusted his doctors to help.
05:54But in one of the most shocking cases
05:56of its kind, Iteralde's surgeon,
05:58Robert Ricketson, knowingly
06:00inserted a broken screwdriver
06:02into his patient instead.
06:04In subsequent trials for negligence,
06:06Ricketson reportedly claimed that he did
06:08so having realized mid-operation
06:10that he didn't have the titanium
06:12rods he was supposed to attach to the
06:14spine. The makeshift screwdriver
06:16soon snapped, however, and Iteralde
06:18was forced to return for a long
06:20series of subsequent operations.
06:22But he was ultimately paralyzed
06:24and died two years later.
06:26Joan Rivers' fatal endoscopy.
06:28You are a legend.
06:30You're an institution. Yeah, no way.
06:32They never will recognize me. Why do you think that?
06:34I'm too outrageous. An endoscopy
06:36is generally a routine procedure.
06:38But in 2014,
06:40the comedian and TV star Joan Rivers
06:42died as a result of undergoing
06:44one. She attended a New York
06:46clinic to have medical professionals
06:48examine her throat. But within minutes of the
06:50surgery beginning, complications arose.
06:52She said she was having this procedure
06:54on either both cords or her throat in the morning.
06:56Didn't seem concerned or anything?
06:58No, not at all. Rivers stopped
07:00breathing and went into cardiac arrest.
07:02After some time, she was resuscitated,
07:04but she had to be placed on life support
07:06and remained in a coma
07:08until, due to a lack of oxygen to her
07:10brain, she died six days later.
07:12An investigation revealed that
07:14unauthorized procedures were performed
07:16and Rivers' plummeting vital signs
07:18were missed. Her daughter, Melissa, took
07:20legal action against the clinic and doctors
07:22involved. You have to read the fine
07:24lines, but you're actually signing that the
07:26anesthesia that you're getting, the medicine that's actually
07:28causing you to go to sleep,
07:30the sedative hypnotic that you get,
07:32in this case, the propofol, can
07:34cause death. Jessica Santian's
07:36transplant tragedy. Jessica
07:38Santian, a 17-year-old,
07:40received a heart and lung transplant
07:42at Duke University Hospital,
07:44North Carolina, in 2003.
07:46She would ultimately lose her life via
07:48the operation, though, due to a massive
07:50error. The organs transplanted
07:52were of the wrong blood type
07:54and, as a result, Santian suffered
07:56severe brain damage and died
07:58shortly after. Even efforts
08:00towards completing a second transplant
08:02couldn't save her, as doctors reportedly
08:04realized the fatal mistake only at the
08:06end of completing the initial procedure.
08:08We have faith in the surgeons.
08:10We have faith in Dr. Jaggers
08:12as a surgeon. He is the one
08:14performing the second operation for her.
08:16We feel that there was a great mistake
08:18made. The tragedy was attributed
08:20to failures in the hospital's
08:22organ matching process and
08:24communication breakdowns among the medical
08:26team. Santian's family filed
08:28a lawsuit, which eventually resulted
08:30in a settlement, while the case spurred
08:32significant changes in transplant
08:34protocols with the aim of preventing
08:36similar mistakes. Donda West's
08:38fatal cosmetic surgery.
08:40Are you going to be rapping with him any time soon? You know, I love that
08:42gold digger. I ain't saying she's a gold
08:44digger. Gold digger. You know what I mean, right?
08:46Yeah, I love that, too. I love that.
08:48But one of my favorites is, Hey, Mama, I have to
08:50confess. In 2007,
08:52Donda West, mother of Kanye
08:54West, tragically died following
08:56complications from cosmetic surgery.
08:58West had reportedly had multiple
09:00procedures performed by Dr. Jan
09:02Adams in Los Angeles,
09:04who it was later found had been involved in
09:06multiple malpractice cases
09:08previously in their career. The autopsy
09:10report shows that Donda was under anesthesia
09:12for seven and a quarter hours.
09:14This is a long time.
09:16Post-surgery, West became unwell,
09:18and despite emergency medical
09:20intervention, she passed away the next day.
09:22An autopsy revealed that she died
09:24from coronary artery disease as
09:26well as other post-operative factors.
09:28Kanye publicly mourned the loss
09:30of his mother, while what happened also
09:32directly led to the signing of the
09:34Donda West Law in 2009
09:36to make it mandatory for everyone
09:38undergoing cosmetic surgery to
09:40receive the correct medical clearance
09:42beforehand. Mama,
09:44I want
09:46to scream so loud for you
09:48because I'm so proud of you
09:50and let me tell you what I'm about
09:52to do. Before we continue,
09:54be sure to subscribe to our channel and
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10:06notifications.
10:08Sherman Sizemore's
10:10Wide Awake Surgery
10:12Hang on tight.
10:16If major surgery goes how it's supposed
10:18to, then the patient should be entirely
10:20out and completely unaware of what's
10:22happening to them. No pain or consciousness
10:24until they awake afterwards.
10:26But what happened to Sherman Sizemore is
10:28many people's worst nightmare.
10:30The 73-year-old clergyman went under
10:32the knife in 2006 for an operation
10:34on his gallbladder, but it's claimed
10:36that although paralyzing drugs were
10:38administered, general anesthesia
10:40wasn't. Sizemore could reportedly
10:42feel everything that was happening to him,
10:44but couldn't move or cry out to prevent
10:46it. Look at my eye.
10:48Come on,
10:50man. Can you see that?
10:52Why am I crying, huh?
10:54Some of his surgeons at the time denied
10:56that the anesthesia was missed, and other
10:58theories are that the patient suffered from a
11:00broader phenomenon known as
11:02anesthesia awareness. However it
11:04happened, though, the trauma ultimately led
11:06Sizemore to take his own life.
11:08That's why we physicians
11:10specializing in anesthesiology
11:12must go through extensive
11:14training in order to
11:16be able to balance these
11:18competing goals.
11:20Patient safety
11:22versus
11:24the rare instance of patient
11:26awareness. Which of these cases
11:28are you most affected by? Let us know
11:30in the comments. Check out these other
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