Legal Malpractice Newsroom

Man Dies After Surgery On Wrong Side Of Brain

After having brain surgery performed on the wrong side of his brain, an 86 year old man died three weeks after his surgery. Authorities are trying to determine whether or not the death could be attributed to the botch surgery. The man whose name has not been released to the public went to Rhode Island Hospital on July 30 to treat bleeding in his brain. A nurse at the hospital failed to mark which side of the brain needed to have surgery. When another nurse pointed out the missing information, the brain surgeon, Dr. Frederick Harrington, allegedly relied on his memory without looking up the information on the patient’s CT chart when performing the surgery. When Dr. Harrington realized his error during the surgery, he operated on the correct side of the brain.

This is the third incident in which a doctor performed surgery on the wrong side at the hospital’s neurosurgery unit. In addition, Dr. Harringtonalso made this same error before when he was performing surgery at Roger Williams Medical Center in September.