An 82-year-old patient is waiting to have his leg cut off after surgeons accidentally chopped off the wrong one.
The elderly man, who was told that he would have to have his leg amputated due to a previous illness, went to the Freistadt Clinic for the surgery.
When he woke up from the procedure, he was shocked to discover that surgeons had cut off the wrong leg.
A spokesperson for the clinic said: “We are deeply shocked that on Tuesday, May 18, despite quality assurance standards, the wrong leg of an 82-year-old man … was amputated.”
They also said that the mistake was first noticed when changing the man’s bandage on Thursday morning.
“It was (Thursday) morning, in the course of the standard wound dressing change, that the tragic mistake, caused by human error, was discovered,” the clinic continued.
“Unfortunately the mistake, in which the right leg was removed instead of the left, occurred as a result of a sequence of unfortunate circumstances,” the clinic said, adding that it was investigating the incident and would review its standards.
“We would also like to affirm that we will be doing everything to unravel the case, to investigate all internal processes and critically analyze them. Any necessary steps will immediately be taken,” it said in a statement.
The elderly man has been offered psychological assistance and must undergo another surgery to remove the other leg.
“The operation is planned shortly,” the clinic added.
One person commented: “Oh come on…… they have a 50/50 chance of getting it right! I wouldn’t let that surgeon dial 999 for the fire brigade, you’d probably end up with a domino’s pizza.”
Another wrote: “This is no joke! I had to tell my doctor which leg I had a problem with! Save the NHS save yourself first!”
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