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Botched tendon surgery leads to lawsuit

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, April 23, 2003

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An orthopedic surgeon faces a lawsuit alleging that he caused a patient "disability, disfigurement, and mental anguish" after he operated on the incorrect leg during tendon surgery at a Florida ambulatory center, according to the April 21 St. Petersburg Times.

Surgeon Imad Tarabishy first saw the patient at the Florida Endoscopy and Surgery Center while she was being anesthetized for surgery on a ruptured Achilles tendon in her left leg, according to the Times. When the surgeon left the room to scrub, the patient was turned over onto her stomach. Tarashiby allegedly re-entered the room, and approached the left side of the table without realizing that the patient's legs were in a different position.

According to the postoperative report, Tarashiby made an incision into the patient's right leg, realized his mistake, immediately corrected it, and apologized to the patient and her husband. The patient's attorney denies that Tarashiby apologized, and contends that the surgery permanently damaged the patient's right leg.

The Florida Board of Medicine fined Imad Tarabishy in 1999 over a similar incident. The second incident happened just two months after the Health Department completed its investigation of the first, according to the Times.

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