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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10:08Sherman 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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