January 27, 2009

A little orthopedic surgery in Sweden

A strange story from Stockholm Sweden's The Local:
Too long leg becomes too short after failed op
A police officer with one leg longer than the other has been left with permanent injuries after a failed operation took too much off the leg, leaving it several centimetres shorter than the other, according to a report in Hallands Nyheter.

The police officer approached a private clinic in Gothenburg to correct a problem: one of his legs was longer that the other and it was agreed that surgery would remove two and half centimetres.

But after four operations the man has been left with back and knee pain and a leg that is now five and half centimetres shorter and with the imbalance now firmly on the other foot.

During the original operation the man lost a large quantity of blood and received several blood transfusions, writes Hallands Nyheter.

He felt pain soon after the operation and was submitted for an x-ray a week later.

The x-ray showed that one of the screws used to hold his knee together had loosened and that the joint was fixed 20 degrees out of position.

A further operation showed that a plate in the leg had been fixed incorrectly in the original operation.
What do you call the person that graduated lowest in his class in Medical School? Doctor. I picked up a lot of information on orthopedics while reading up on the ailment that necessitated my hip replacement. The actual procedure has been refined to the point where it is a very routine operation with minimal recovery time. Changing the length of a leg is in the same league. (In hip replacement, sometimes, if the femur is damaged, they have to cut away to get fresh tissue to attach the implant, the bone is then lengthened in the same operation.) I hope this guy has a good lawyer as he has a couple million coming to him above and beyond the cost of the initial surgery. Posted by DaveH at January 27, 2009 7:38 PM
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