An Australian grandmother walked into the hospital, expecting doctors to remove a small cancerous skin tag. Instead, an “unbelievable” mix-up left her butchered after surgeons allegedly performed a procedure meant for someone else.
Keep reading to learn more.
On January 23, Debra Buchanan arrived at the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital expecting to have a small cancerous skin tag removed.
In a cruel coincidence, another patient named Deborah was waiting in the same pre-operative area.
When staff called out “Deborah,” the grandmother of seven instinctively responded.
“They called ‘Deborah’ and I said, ‘did you mean Buchanan?’ and they said, ‘oh yes, you’ll do,’” Buchanan told 9Now Australia. “The woman next to me said ‘I’m Deborah’ and they said, ‘oh no, we’ve got the right one’.”
Looking back, Buchanan believes that moment should have raised immediate concerns.
“I’ve been a dental nurse for many years, and you never call a person or a patient by their first name,” the Aussie explained.
But, trusting the medical team, she was taken into surgery.
“The anaesthetist was getting ready to put me to sleep, I’m thinking, ‘Where’s the surgeon? Oh well, they must know what they’re doing’ and I went with it.”
Shocking discovery
Buchanan had consented to having a growth removed from her pelvic area but when she opened her eyes, she discovered that surgeons performed a completely different operation without her knowledge, removing a large portion of her external genitalia.
She didn’t realize anything was wrong until she tried to walk to the bathroom.
“I stood up, walked over to the bathroom door and I just got in the bathroom door and I haemorrhaged everywhere,” she said.
She immediately called for help and asked the nurse to explain why she was “bleeding so badly.”
‘But why were you in there?’
The response only deepened her confusion.
“She said ‘oh, that’s part of the operation’, and I said, ‘what operation?’ I had it on here,’ and as I touched it, it was still there,” Buchanan explained of the growth that was still there.
When she asked to speak with the surgeon who had performed the procedure, she was instead visited by a junior doctor, who told her they did “a horseshoe shape” and then “stitched around.”
“But why were you in there?” Buchanan asked about her genitalia, which had parts removed during the procedure, leaving her with permanent scarring.
“She looked at me like I was mad,” said Buchanan, who immediately called her husband, Alex.
“‘I don’t want you to get angry…They’ve done the wrong operation,’” Alex recalled his wife saying after the procedure. “She was in so much pain it wasn’t funny.”
‘Always feels like it’s going to tear’
According to Buchanan, the explanation she eventually received pointed to the presence of two patients with similar first names and staff shortages.
“I got a little bit to say that because of the two Debras and also they were understaffed at the time,” she said, adding that the excuses were “very difficult to listen to.”
Months later, Buchanan says she’s still dealing with constant pain and the emotional scars left by the mistake.
“It was pulled so tight with stitches, it always feels like it’s going to tear,” she said, explaining the experience left her “terrified,” and “anxious.”
“I’ve lost my confidence,” she shared.
Trauma that followed
When attorney Erin Monsalve Fear first heard Buchanan’s account, she said it was “a complete systemic failure” and “almost unbelievable.”
“The fact that she was never consulted nor consented appropriately for the surgery prior to it taking place and I think that’s one of the biggest things that it boils down to,” Monsalve Fear said.
In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the attorney explained that the “safeguards and procedures” either “failed or not been followed” – and because of that, Buchanan had to return for another operation in February to remove the original cancerous lesion.
“So, the trauma that has followed that, she’s obviously been terrified to go back into surgery after this experience occurred,” Monsalve Fear shared.
No ‘personal’ apology
More than six months later, Buchanan says she still hasn’t met the surgeon who botched the procedure, nor has she received a real apology.
“Not really, not a personal one,” she said when asked whether she had received one. Monsalve Fear added: “Put yourself in Deb’s shoes to have no answers, no follow-up, no clarity really as to what’s gone on from the surgeon who performed this surgery on her, it’s pretty abysmal,” she told 9Now.
‘Not like breaking a cup’
For Buchanan, speaking publicly isn’t just about sharing her own experience. She hopes it encourages others to speak up and helps prevent another patient from enduring the same ordeal.
“You can’t do this, you can’t make a mistake on a person, it’s not like breaking a cup, it’s life to them,” said Buchanan, who, according to 9Now.
She added, “I know a lot of people are too frightened to talk sometimes. Well, I’m not, I need to get it out there, so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
According to ABC, the government has launched an investigation into what it called an “extraordinary” incident.
Can you imagine going in for one procedure and waking up to discover doctors had performed another? Please let us know what you think and make sure you pass this story along so we can get the conversation started!