Surgeon Operates on Wrong Side of Brain

The Associated Press has reported that an 86-year-old Providence Rhode Island man died three weeks after a neurosurgeon operated on the wrong side of his head. The patient, whose name wasn’t released, died Saturday, and the state medical examiner was determining the cause of death.The man underwent emergency surgery at Rhode Island Hospital on July 30 to treat bleeding in his brain A nurse practitioner for Dr. Frederick Harrington didn’t record which side of the man’s brain required surgery. When another nurse pointed out the missing information, Harrington allegedly relied on his memory without consulting a CT chart and began operating on the wrong side. Upon realizing the error during the surgery, the surgeon operated on the correct side.
The hospital has suspended Harrington’s surgical privileges, and he has agreed to stop performing surgery until an evaluation is complete. The incident marked the third wrong-side surgery error in the hospital’s neurosurgery unit in six years. Harrington also operated on the wrong side of a patient’s head during a surgery at Roger Williams Medical Center in September.
After reviewing that incident, the state Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline decided there were mitigating circumstances and opted to create a remediation plan for Harrington rather than publicly sanction him.