A baby who is born at an Oregon hospital may be given a number of checkups before the baby and mother are discharged. One family in Tennessee thought that their newborn was going for a routine checkup and then discovered that hospital staff had made a serious mistake. When the healthy baby boy was mistaken for another baby, an unnecessary surgical procedure was performed on him.
According to the baby’s mother, she found out what happened to her newborn son when he was returned to her from what she thought was a checkup. A nurse began talking about a procedure that had been done on the boy, and the mother started to cry hysterically. The doctor who performed the procedure later admitted to his medical mistake in the baby boy’s progress report.
The surgical procedure that was mistakenly performed on the newborn was called a frenulectomy, which is a procedure that is done on children with a tight flap of skin on the tongue. The flap of skin is cut to prevent feeding or speech problems that can be caused by the child’s tongue-tie. Though the newborn in Tennessee did not have a problem that required such a procedure, the family now worries that their child may have problems with speech and eating as a result of the doctor error.
These types of surgical mistakes can cause a lot of harm to the patient as well as the patient’s family. Those who have been the victims of such a mistake may find it prudent to discuss their legal options with a medical malpractice attorney.