Gulfport doctor operated on patient’s wrong foot and ankle, lawsuit says. What now?
A Biloxi woman had surgery on her right foot and ankle. Problem was, the doctor was supposed to operate on her left foot and ankle, according to a lawsuit that she and her husband have since filed.
To make matters worse, the surgery on her right foot and ankle did not work and had to be performed again. And the surgery on her left foot and ankle was delayed for almost a year, leaving her in pain from both extremeties.
Crystal and David Bratcher are suing orthopedic surgeon Judith Smith, Gulf Orthopedics, where she practices; Memorial Hospital at Gulfport, where surgery was performed; Phyisician’s Assistant Jillian Dedeaux; and Registered Nurse Kandis Stanley for an unspecified amount to compensate the couple for losses the surgery caused and for punitive damages.
They claim in the Harrison County Circuit Court lawsuit that the medical team operated on Bratcher’s right ankle without her consent, then compounded the problem by misrepresenting the original plan to her husband, who agreed the surgery should continue.
“The effect of having two injured extremities, rather than one extremity properly repaired, has been devastating to Mrs. Bratcher,” the lawsuit says. “It has increased her depression and anxiety, and has made her chronic back pain worse.”
What happened with Biloxi woman’s surgery
Crystal Bratcher injured her left ankle in September 2022 when she jumped a fence because she was late taking her children to softball practice, the lawsuit says. Still in pain two months after the injury and treatment, Bratcher decided to have surgery for tendon repair and left ankle reconstruction.
She had sprained her right ankle years earlier, but was having no problems with it, the lawsuit says.
Her left ankle was marked before the surgery on Dec. 7, 2022. Dedeaux was assisting with the surgery that Smith performed, while Stanley worked as the surgical coordinator in orthopedic trauma, the lawsuit says. All three women were involved in positioning Bratcher for surgery, the lawsuit says.
Smith realized once she had worked on Bratcher’s tendons that she had cut into the wrong extremity. “Dr. Smith wrote that ‘at that point, I was made aware that the patient had consented to surgery on the left side, but we were in fact operating on the right,’ “ the lawsuit says.
Smith then discussed the situation with David Bratcher, telling him that “we were correcting the right side, but the intent had been to correct the left side first,” the lawsuit says. “He expressed understanding, and agreed that we should continue with the correction of the right ankle instability.”
Smith then proceeded with a right ankle reconstruction, the lawsuit says.
Smith’s documentation before surgery does show instability of the right ankle, the lawsuit says, but Crystal Bratcher was not having any problems with that ankle and had not consented to surgery on it.
She accuses the medical practitioners and hospital of negligently violating her right to informed consent and deviating from the standard of care.
“No reasonable patient would have consented to surgeries on an asymptomatic extremity while leaving the symptomatic side unrepaired,” the lawsuit says. “A proper consent process would have informed the patient that simply leaving the right ankle alone would be the prudent choice.”
Responses to the lawsuit are not yet due but Memorial and Smith have requested additional time to file theirs. The Bratchers’ claims represent only one side of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says that Bratcher’s right tendon repairs and right ankle reconstruction had to be redone. It also says that she has nerve dysfunction in her right lower extremity, which hurts daily, and that the injuries are permanent. She had to wait almost a full year from when the surgery was initially scheduled to have her left foot and ankle repaired.
“She is still recovering from that surgery which should have been long behind her,” the lawsuit says.
