A man had the wrong leg amputated by surgeons in a "tragic mistake".
The elderly patient was told that he would have to have the limb removed because a previous illness had affected it.
The 82-year-old, who is suffering from a host of medical ailments, went to the Freistadt Clinic close to the Czech border in Austria for the operation.
When he awoke from the procedure he was horrified to discover that his right rather than left leg had been chopped off.
“We are deeply shocked that on Tuesday, May 18, despite quality assurance standards, the wrong leg of an 82-year old man ... was amputated,” a spokesperson for the clinic said.
They added that the mistake was first noticed during a bandage change on Thursday morning.
The error appears to have been made shortly before the operation, when the leg that was to be amputated was marked.
“Unfortunately the mistake, in which the right leg was removed instead of the left, occurred as a result of a sequence of unfortunate circumstances,” it said, adding that it was investigating what happened and would review its standards.
The patient has been offered psychological assistance and must still undergo another operation to remove his left leg from mid-thigh.
“The operation is planned shortly,” the clinic said.
Wrong-sided amputations are not only endured by Austrian patients.
Between April 2018 and July 2019, 621 ‘never events’ occurred in NHS hospitals - blunders so serious they should never happen.
That’s the equivalent of nine patients every week, according to data obtained by PA news agency.
The figures show doctors have operated on the wrong body parts and left surgical tools (including surgical gloves, chest drains and drill bits) inside patients many times over.
One patient had the wrong toe amputated, while another had the wrong part of their colon removed.
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