Mum left ‘screaming and shaking’ after surgery bungle removed wrong organ
A mum-of-three was sent home with in agony with just paracetamol after her appendix was removed instead of her gallbladder.
31-year-old Charlene Jones was worried when she experienced a stabbing pain in her abdomen. When she went to her doctor, an ultrasound showed symptoms of cholecystitis - inflammation of the gallbladder.
Despite what she saw on the ultrasound, she was told that it was her appendix that needed attention, and was scheduled for surgery the next day to remove it.
‘Due to my scan I believed I was suffering from cholecystitis, but believing that they knew best I went into surgery that day,’ Ms Jones told the Coventry Telegraph.
However, when she woke up she was overcome by incredible pain that left her ‘shaking violently with stomach pain, screaming’ on the floor.
Regardless she was sent home with paracetamol, so she went to a different hospital, Birmingham City, where she was immediately treated for septic shock and was diagnosed with - you guessed it - a serious gallbladder infection.
‘The doctor at Birmingham couldn’t understand why my appendix was taken… My appendix was perfectly normal.’
Painkillers and antibiotics began to help the distraught mum recover - but the events have left her shaken.
‘I strongly believe that I would be seriously ill or dead had I not gone to Birmingham.
She has made an official complaint about the first hospital, who have said they won’t comment on the events.
This article first published on New Idea.
