VIENNA – Two doctors are facing charges of bodily injury caused by negligence after they amputated the wrong leg of a 90-year-old Austrian woman, Agence-France Presse reported.
The woman, who was suffering from vascular disease, went to the hospital in the Tyrolean town of Sankt Johann on June 16 to have her leg amputated, but things went terribly wrong.
Prosecutors say the mistake was made while the two doctors were planning the surgey, and in the end, they did not realize they had removed the wrong limb until after the operation.
The hospital said human error and a breakdown in safety measures was to blame for the mistake. The surgeon who handled the operation has been suspended.
He is expected to go on trial with the other doctor in November.
The patient, now 91, had the correct limb amputated a few days later, according to the report.
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