TOLEDO — A woman is suing her surgeon and the hospital that left her unable to walk or play with her children after they operated on the wrong leg, according to a lawsuit.
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Talia Foster, 33, of Toledo, is suing the University of Toledo Medical Center (UTMC) and the orthopedic surgeon that she claims operated on the wrong knee in 2023, according to our CBS-affiliate WTOL in Toledo.
Instead of operating on her injured left knee for what was supposed to be a routine ACL repair, Dr. David Sohn removed a healthy tendon from her right leg, according to the lawsuit.
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“He never marked the right leg. It was just never discussed,” Foster told WTOL.
Her surgeon confirmed the error in Foster’s medical records: “After harvesting the first of two hamstring tendons, I was notified that we had started operating on the incorrect knee. We stopped surgery and contacted patient’s family (mother). I explained our error and asked whether she wished for me to proceed. She said yes.”
Her mother, Barbara Foster, said she remembers the phone call with Dr. Sohn during the surgery.
“I’m still in shock like, ‘Wait a minute.’ He said, ‘Well, since we already have this tendon out, should I go ahead and do the left knee?’ He said, ‘I don’t want to waste the tendon,’” her mother said to WTOL.
CBS affiliate, WTOL, cited the National Institutes of Health policy on wrong-site surgeries, stating they are rare but preventable through communication and compliance with surgical protocols.
The Joint Commission has recommended a “Universal Protocol,” since 2003 that requires site marking while the patient is awake and a two-minute “time out” before surgery to confirm the procedure, site, and patient identity, as reported by WTOL.
Foster’s left knee, the one she was supposed to get surgery on initially, was visibly marked with the surgeon’s initials.
Foster said the hospital itself didn’t realize the mistake initially, and it remains unclear how her right knee became the surgical target, according to WTOL.
Foster said her doctors have told her the ACL surgery on her left knee was a failure, and she now suffers nerve pain in her right leg.
She has sought treatment with new doctors to manage her ongoing pain, but it’s just a temporary solution to try to ease ‘the constant burning and pain,’ she said to WTOL.
Foster said she can no longer work after a decade of service as an employee at Stellantis. She’s on disability and said she is unable to care for or play with her two-year-old and eight-year-old children.
“She said she’d rather cut her legs off. What good is having something when you don’t have any stability in them? You’re falling downstairs, you can’t carry your kid. Who wants to live like that?” Foster’s mother said.
According to her doctors, Foster will need a full knee replacement on her left leg, and her right leg may never fully recover.
“Just being able to run with my kids, that’s my best hope. Being able to have the stability I had before this. But it’s hard to have that type of hope,” Foster said.
Neither UTMC nor Dr. Sohn has commented, citing the pending litigation, according to WTOL.
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