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Nell

Unending melancholy
Bold Member!
A Tennessee couple is outraged after a doctor mistakenly performed tongue-clipping surgery on their son after mixing him up with another baby.

Not long after baby Nate was born at University Medical Center in Lebanon, he went for what was supposed to be a routine physical. A few hours later, he was brought back to his parents.

"At that point the nurse started to mention the procedure they had done," his mom, Jennifer Melton, told WTVF.

They were confused. The nurse explained that surgeons had cut the flap of skin beneath Nate's tongue. The little boy did not need the procedure, which had been intended for another child.

"Essentially they took our child who was healthy from the room and cut his mouth," Jennifer said. "At that point I began to cry hysterically."

The family's attorney called the mistake "recklessness."

"There is no excuse on operating on the wrong baby, none," Clint Kelly told WTVF.

The doctor who performed the procedure reportedly admitted his mistake, writing in a progress report: "I had asked for the wrong infant. I had likely performed the procedure on an infant different than the one I intended to ... and I admitted my mistake and apologized."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/doctor-performs-surgery-wrong-newborn-145700219.html
 
This is horrifying to me on a personal level.

When I was a kid, a doctor tried to convince my Mom to have my tongue cut in half and stitched back together to make it smaller because he said it was going to cause speech problems later. I was three years old, and I still remember how scared I was. Of course she didn't. F*ckin' nut job got his license pulled later for actually doing that procedure....and it went real, real bad.

I can speak perfectly fine, but even if I couldn't, I'll keep my tongue as is thank you.
 
Sorry, folks. I am *NOT* being uppity, sanctimonious, arrogant or all high and mighty about the following, I assure you. Mistakes happen. If they didn't, malpractice insurance would be dirt cheap and myself and three of my colleagues who do the same thing with nurses I do would be out of a job. Nurse educators in retraining all over the country would be out of a job. Medicine is one career where you are expected to be 110% mistake-free 24/7/365(6). I've said before, I couldn't be a doctor/surgeon (except a Pathologist) if someone gifted me the $$ for the education, period, so I absolutely get it.

But, my questions are: (1) Why he asked for the wrong infant? Risk Management works very hard to ensure shit like this doesn't happen. (2) Surgical has a "Scheduling Agent", so was this child's name on the surgical schedule? (3)Why did the Neonatal nurse(s) hand over a healthy child who was not scheduled for surgery when they should have the surgical schedule on their computer/daily surgery report? (4)Did the child have an ID bracelet on his ankle? (5) Was the doc impaired and/or sleep deprived? Does a physician/surgeon just "ask" for a surgical patient and everyone who is supposed to help make sure s/he gets the right one just scamper around to kiss his/her ass without at least double-checking?

You get the idea. Hell, we cover people with magic marker "X's" and cue words all the time to indicate which limb to amputate, or what organ to work on ffs, so if all protocols were followed, why did this child have an unnecessary surgery simply b/c "the doctor asked for (and was given) the wrong infant."? There are supposed to be too many people in place as "stop gaps", not just nurses, to help avoid the bullshit of "Well, Dr. So & So said."

As someone mentioned earlier, at least it was a lingual frenectomy and nothing more serious, but depending on what the deal was, I don't think the doc should be the only one sued if there is a suit. University hospitals aren't your wealthy hospitals, but there are way too many checks and balances in place these days that the days of docs/surgeons being seen as "gods" with everyone automatically "obeying" whatever they say without double/triple checking them sets us all back 30 years. JMO. YMMV.
 
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At least it wasn't heart surgery. My nephews had to have their tongue Flaps cut. Being tongue tied runs in the family.

I never even knew this was an option. I'm tongue tied. My speech in my younger years was horrible. But now I speak fine. I still can't stick my tongue out however. But I've learned to deal with it. Is it too late to have this procedure done you think? Lol
 
I never even knew this was an option. I'm tongue tied. My speech in my younger years was horrible. But now I speak fine. I still can't stick my tongue out however. But I've learned to deal with it. Is it too late to have this procedure done you think? Lol

No ma'am, it's not too late at all. The only thing you'd have to worry about is your doc convincing your insurance company it's "medically necessary" to improve your quality of life. Just google "adult lingual frenectomy" and you'll find gobs of information this incl. a couple of youtube videos. :)
 
Sorry, folks. I am *NOT* being uppity, sanctimonious, arrogant or all high and mighty about the following, I assure you. Mistakes happen. If they didn't, malpractice insurance would be dirt cheap and myself and three of my colleagues who do the same thing with nurses I do would be out of a job. Nurse educators in retraining all over the country would be out of a job. Medicine is one career where you are expected to be 110% mistake-free 24/7/365(6). I've said before, I couldn't be a doctor/surgeon (except a Pathologist) if someone gifted me the $$ for the education, period, so I absolutely get it.

But, my questions are: (1) Why he asked for the wrong infant? Risk Management works very hard to ensure shit like this doesn't happen. (2) Surgical has a "Scheduling Agent", so was this child's name on the surgical schedule? (3)Why did the Neonatal nurse(s) hand over a healthy child who was not scheduled for surgery when they should have the surgical schedule on their computer/daily surgery report? (4)Did the child have an ID bracelet on his ankle? (5) Was the doc impaired and/or sleep deprived? Does a physician/surgeon just "ask" for a surgical patient and everyone who is supposed to help make sure s/he gets the right one just scamper around to kiss his/her ass without at least double-checking?

You get the idea. Hell, we cover people with magic marker "X's" and cue words all the time to indicate which limb to amputate, or what organ to work on ffs, so if all protocols were followed, why did this child have an unnecessary surgery simply b/c "the doctor asked for (and was given) the wrong infant."? There are supposed to be too many people in place as "stop gaps", not just nurses, to help avoid the bullshit of "Well, Dr. So & So said."

As someone mentioned earlier, at least it was a lingual frenectomy and nothing more serious, but depending on what the deal was, I don't think the doc should be the only one sued if there is a suit. University hospitals aren't your wealthy hospitals, but there are way too many checks and balances in place these days that the days of docs/surgeons being seen as "gods" everyone automatically "obeys" whatever they say without double/triple checking them sets us all back 30 years. JMO. YMMV.
If I could put another star on this post, I would.
You completely articulated the entire conundrum in my head. Just how?!
[doublepost=1455327079,1455326968][/doublepost]
giphy.gif
 
I Was thinking they were twins until I read the article

Yikes. Hope the baby he did that to is okay and what is tongue clipping for?
 
It's clipping the membrane under the tongue. When it's too long or too tight the tongue isn't able to move freely so the person is called tongue tied. In some babies it's so severe the babies are unable to nurse correctly. It can also affect speech. One of my nephews had it done as a baby due to the nursing issue. My other nephew had it done when he was a teen due to speech issues. My personal opinion he should have had it done as an infant as his speech is still impacted he still sounds words/letters out as if he were still tongue tied because that's the way the word sounds normal to him.
 
So what happens if a baby doesn't need it? Are the forever messed up do you know? Oh I'm telling you if this happened to my baby I would sue him so bad my daughter would be forever financially set. This is ridiculous. It's not like it is the wrong baby for a exam.. and okay where were the parents of the right baby? Shouldn't one of them been by their babies side during surgery? at least see their baby off.. and if that would have happened this entire situation would not have happened because they would have been like.. umm wtf. That's not my baby!!!!! Like a good example of this is my daughter had surgery at 3 months old. A Gtube/nissan... I stayed by her side until the surgeon took her into the operating room... I would have known if it was someone else's baby...so IMO too many WTFs with this one.
 
I never even knew this was an option. I'm tongue tied. My speech in my younger years was horrible. But now I speak fine. I still can't stick my tongue out however. But I've learned to deal with it. Is it too late to have this procedure done you think? Lol

[doublepost=1455367533,1455367490][/doublepost]
As a nurse I volunteer to make-out with you for a while to help evaluate if surgery is needed:nana:
 
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I'm with @gatekeeper... While I'm not in the medical field and not even close to familiar with the details of surgical protocol, even I am scratching my head at how they didn't catch this with a simple check of the baby's bracelet.

Although it does sound like this was 100% the doctor's fault because he specifically requested the wrong infant, so I suppose that explains the bracelet part. Still, I refer back to @gatekeeper's other excellent questions about how this could happen with the normal safeguards in place. And most perplexing of all to me, how did the doc not notice the mistake the minute he looked at the baby's normal tongue?!

I'm just glad it wasn't an even more extreme form of surgery. This would be traumatizing enough for parents and baby!
 
Sorry, folks. I am *NOT* being uppity, sanctimonious, arrogant or all high and mighty about the following, I assure you. Mistakes happen. If they didn't, malpractice insurance would be dirt cheap and myself and three of my colleagues who do the same thing with nurses I do would be out of a job. Nurse educators in retraining all over the country would be out of a job. Medicine is one career where you are expected to be 110% mistake-free 24/7/365(6). I've said before, I couldn't be a doctor/surgeon (except a Pathologist) if someone gifted me the $$ for the education, period, so I absolutely get it.

But, my questions are: (1) Why he asked for the wrong infant? Risk Management works very hard to ensure shit like this doesn't happen. (2) Surgical has a "Scheduling Agent", so was this child's name on the surgical schedule? (3)Why did the Neonatal nurse(s) hand over a healthy child who was not scheduled for surgery when they should have the surgical schedule on their computer/daily surgery report? (4)Did the child have an ID bracelet on his ankle? (5) Was the doc impaired and/or sleep deprived? Does a physician/surgeon just "ask" for a surgical patient and everyone who is supposed to help make sure s/he gets the right one just scamper around to kiss his/her ass without at least double-checking?

You get the idea. Hell, we cover people with magic marker "X's" and cue words all the time to indicate which limb to amputate, or what organ to work on ffs, so if all protocols were followed, why did this child have an unnecessary surgery simply b/c "the doctor asked for (and was given) the wrong infant."? There are supposed to be too many people in place as "stop gaps", not just nurses, to help avoid the bullshit of "Well, Dr. So & So said."

As someone mentioned earlier, at least it was a lingual frenectomy and nothing more serious, but depending on what the deal was, I don't think the doc should be the only one sued if there is a suit. University hospitals aren't your wealthy hospitals, but there are way too many checks and balances in place these days that the days of docs/surgeons being seen as "gods" with everyone automatically "obeying" whatever they say without double/triple checking them sets us all back 30 years. JMO. YMMV.
And last but not least if all, wouldn't the doctor notice the little thing (don't know what its called) wasn't extra long?
My daughter is tongue tied and she can't stick her tongue out.
 
@amac commented:
"And most perplexing of all to me, how did the doc not notice the mistake the minute he looked at the baby's normal tongue?!"

@Keepalowprofile commented:
"And last but not least if all, wouldn't the doctor notice the little thing (don't know what its called) wasn't extra long?"

That's the $64,000 question I kind of tried to skirt around with the, "Was the doc impaired and/or sleep deprived" comment. I'm not an infant/child nurse, but I'd think a neonatal surgeon would be able to recognize the normal/abnormal structures of an infant's tongue before they do the snip and clip, too.
 
@amac commented:
"And most perplexing of all to me, how did the doc not notice the mistake the minute he looked at the baby's normal tongue?!"

@Keepalowprofile commented:
"And last but not least if all, wouldn't the doctor notice the little thing (don't know what its called) wasn't extra long?"

That's the $64,000 question I kind of tried to skirt around with the, "Was the doc impaired and/or sleep deprived" comment. I'm not an infant/child nurse, but I'd think a neonatal surgeon would be able to recognize the normal/abnormal structures of an infant's tongue before they do the snip and clip, too.
First of all, I find it funny that our phrasing was so similar @Keepalowprofile. I hadn't seen your comment when I first posted.

Second... @gatekeeper, you mention impaired or sleep deprived... could this almost be a kind of "assembly line" mistake. I'm sure some people already get what I mean, but to clarify, in your professional experience, do physicians/surgeons ever get a rather robot-like attitude toward the next patient? The way I see it, it's similar to the Taco Bell haze, but with a PhD. Every burrito is like the next... Until you get handed that rouge whole wheat tortilla.
 
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