Man with head injuries gets leg op

New Delhi – A surgeon has been taken off his post at a New Delhi hospital for performing an unnecessary operation on a patient’s leg after confusing him with another man, an official said yesterday.

The surgeon last week drilled a hole in 50-year-old Vijendra Tyagi’s leg to insert a pin before realising he had the wrong patient. Tyagi had been admitted to Sushruta Trauma Centre with head injuries. But he was mistaken for another man with a broken leg and had surgery for a leg fracture.

Last week, two doctors were arrested for negligence after failing to diagnose a 51-year-old with high blood pressure. She went into cardiac arrest and died. In December, a Delhi hospital incorrectly declared premature twins dead despite one being alive. –