Oops!

A horribly regrettable mix-up

Annie Robinson, 58, needed an operation to remove the parathyroid glands in the front of her neck. Virginia Edmondson, 54, needed cartilage removed from the vertebrae at the back of her neck. On the same morning at Philadelphia's Graduate Hospital, doctors somehow mixed up the two women and started performing the vertebrae operation on the parathyroid patient and vice versa.

How could such a thing have happened? The hospital is still investigating the incident, and saying little. But its spokesman did report that both doctors spotted the error in mid-operation and halted their work. Stranger still, the doctor mistakenly operating on Mrs. Edmondson's thyroid discovered and removed a benign nodule while the doctor mistakenly operating on Mrs. Robinson's vertebrae cured her of an unrelated pain in her leg by somehow relieving pressure on her sciatic nerve.

Despite these serendipitous benefits, both women are considering the possibility of suing the hospital. The medical authorities called the incident "horribly regrettable" but offered a gesture of good will: neither the doctors nor the hospital will send either patient a bill for services rendered.

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