MILFORD, CT - Sixty-year-old Milford resident Deborah Craven checked into Yale-New Haven Medical Center in May 2015 to have portions of a potentially cancerous rib removed.
But when she awoke after the surgery, the doctors discovered they operated on the wrong rib, and in her recently filed lawsuit, Craven claims they lied to her to try to cover up the mistake and then rushed her back into surgery the same day to correct it.
Craven has sued the hospital, Yale University School of Medicine and Dr. Anthony Kim, M.D. and his surgery trainee Ricardo Quarrie, M.D., who Craven didn't even know was added to the surgery team.
"The fact that the surgical team operated on the wrong rib despite a clear indication of the proper site is, of course, negligent," said Craven's attorney Joel T. Faxon in a statement provided to Patch. "But the fact that a cardiothoracic surgeon in training would make the outrageous claim that 'not enough rib had been taken' really takes this to another level of culpability. Making the patient undergo another surgery the same day, without owning up to the real medical reason for the repeat surgery is just plain deceitful."
According to Faxon, the potentially cancerous lesion was on her eighth rib, which was visibly marked with metallic coils and a marking dye injected "into her skin and surrounding tissue."
But the doctors removed her seventh rib instead of her eighth, after which Quarrie allegedly told Craven that "not enough rib" had been removed, instead of telling the truth that the wrong rib was operated on.
As a result, Craven has "suffered serious, painful and permanent injuries" because of the two surgeries and "the failure of the defendants and/or their servants, agents, apparent agents, contractors, joint venturers, principals and/or employees to provide the proper care and treatment expected of physicians and medical practitioners specializing in the field of cardiothoracic surgery," according to the lawsuit.
Patch reached out to Yale-New Haven Hospital for comment Thursday afternoon but has not yet heard back.
There have been other allegations of botched surgeries at Yale-New Haven. In 2014, 80 "adverse events" were reported at the hospital, including surgeries performed on the wrong body parts, according to the state Department of Public Health. The hospital also received a grade of C for safety and other issues, according to a report from The Leapfrog Group.
"We had this case reviewed by a board certified cardiothoracic surgeon who was appalled by the lack of care in this case. For example, not only did the defendants remove the wrong rib and lie about it, they also had the option of confirming intraoperatively with an x-ray that the correct rib was being resected but chose not to do so," said Faxon.
"They then failed to remove the metal coils from the patient's body prior to closing the wound and proceeded to misrepresent the reason for her needing a repeat surgery. There were multiple opportunities to correct the error here and it was compounded by the lies of trainee doctor Quarrie. The surgical team at Yale has yet to take responsibility for its wrongdoing so now it will be up to a New Haven jury to hold them accountable."
Faxon contends that his client may never have filed the lawsuit if it were not for the attempted cover up.
"Absent the lying my client never would have instituted a lawsuit," he said. "As the old adage goes the cover up is worse than the crime."
Patch file photo.
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