A surgeon has been fined €2,700 (£2,301) after amputating the wrong leg from one of their patients.
During a tribunal in the city of Linz, Austria, today (1 December), it was heard that the 43-year-old doctor had marked the wrong leg of their 82-year-old patient.
According to reports, the patient's left leg required removing due to a previous illness, however, the doctor marked up his right leg.
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The man was due to undergo an operation in a hospital in Freistadt back in May.
According to the defendant, the mix-up was a case of 'human error' and she told the hearing that she 'didn't know' how it was allowed to happen.
It was claimed by the surgeon involved that the incident was the result of a systematic problem rather than individual error.
She said that "errors in surgical planning had taken place because no page information was given in the patient file, which is why a review was not possible."
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However, the judge found the medic guilty of gross negligence and she was fined over €2,000 - half of which has been suspended.
The court also awarded €5,000 in damages to the widow of the patient, who sadly died before the case could be brought to court.
Despite the seemingly glaring mistake, it was only discovered a couple of days later during a routine bandage change, when horrified nurses spotted what had happened.
Speaking at the time, a hospital official apologised and said it was the "result of a sequence of unfortunate circumstances".
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The surgeon involved has since been moved to another clinic and has the opportunity to appeal the decision.
Earlier this year, a plastic surgeon was banned from performing surgical procedures and told he could no longer practise unsupervised after allegedly stopping midway through operations to film TikTok videos.
Dr Daniel Aronov, who boasts 13 million followers on the platform, was barred from performing any kind of surgical procedure in Australia by the governing organisation (the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) after complaints from several patients about his practices.
Aronov garnered his following with videos that showed him dancing, but also performing procedures on people.
However, one of his patients - a woman called Jackie - says she was left in pain and with a lump in her chin after she went to him for a facelift which he then shared on TikTok.
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Speaking to A Current Affair, she said: "He's in the middle of surgery and he is stopping, checking the video, then saying no I don't want that, cut that out, do it again.
"The fact that AHPRA has been incentivised to actually do something after years of complaints, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It's surreal to me."
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Doctor, Austria, Weird, Health, TikTok