Wrong Diagnosis Leads to Unnecessary Surgery

Case Overview

A 62-year-old female patient presented to the ER with intermittent dull back pain for 2-3 weeks. She was previously seen at her primary care doctor, diagnosed with a UTI and sent home. The imaging results obtained in the emergency room suggested a possible aortic dissection and the patient was rushed to emergency surgery. Upon opening the abdominal cavity the doctor reported in his surgical note that there was a minimal tear and he performed a conservative repair. Shortly after the patient was discharged she received an anonymous note from a nurse stating that during the surgery, after opening the chest, the patient was found to have essentially a normal aorta without any dissection or aneurysm and despite the opinion of the OR team, the surgeon performed an extensive surgery and completely disregarded the patient’s safety in what presumably seemed as a way to overbill for his services.

Questions to the Cardiothoracic Surgery expert and their responses

Is it a coincidence/suspicious that the incision was apparently made “directly upon the site of the very well localized intimal tear”?

If what this nurse wrote is true, than this could be a criminal case.

Does the path report support that there was a dissection?

The only way to determine if this surgeon was correct or not would be to see the pre-op reports, and make sure the indications were appropriate to have gone into surgery in the first place.

About the expert

This expert has over 25 years of experience in the field of cardiothoracic surgery. He earned his MD at St. Louis University School of Medicine and completed his residency in cardiothoracic surgery and cardiac surgery fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. He then went on to complete an additional fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at the National Institute of Health. This expert is active in his field as a member of the American Thoracic Society and the American Heart Association, and as the author of more than 30 peer-reviewed publications. He formerly served as a cardiothoracic surgeon at multiple hospitals, including the University of Pittsburgh. He also served as the chairman of the department of surgery, the medical director of open-heart surgery, and the chief of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery at Lancaster Regional Medical Center, as well as an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Texas. Currently, he serves as a colonel in the army medical department of a military branch and a thoracic surgery consultant to the Army Surgeon General.

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Specialties:

Cardiothoracic Surgery

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