Woman loses both her legs after doctors 'amputated wrong limb' in horror mistake
A woman is suing a hospital for negligence after she went in for an operation to amputate her right leg and ended up cutting off the wrong one, with her having to lose both of them in the end.
74-year-old Ohio woman Sharon Jacks was admitted to Selby General Hospital in September 2025, according to a lawsuit she has issued, for surgery on her right leg.
She'd agreed to the amputation after a doctor recommended it as part of a treatment for squamous cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer.
The lawsuit said that the woman 'consented only to surgery involving her right lower extremity' and 'never consented to amputation of her left lower extremity'.
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Brad Layne, her legal representative, argued that surgery teams are supposed to take 'time outs' to ensure they're performing the right procedure on the right part of the body, and while the team took two of these they still amputated the wrong leg.
He also claims that the leg intended for amputation had been marked before the surgery, but the wrong leg was still removed by the team of surgeons.
Sharon's right leg ended up being amputated four months later at a different hospital.
The lawsuit is accusing Selby General Hospital of a 'complete failure of basic safety procedures' and is seeking unspecified damages, arguing that staff displayed a 'conscious disregard of fundamental safety principles'.
It says that the 74-year-old 'suffered physical injury, permanent disability, pain and suffering, emotional distress, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, medical expenses and other damages' as a result of having the wrong leg amputated.
In a statement issued to WBNS-TV the hospital acknowledged that 'our expected operating room procedures were not followed' and that the medical staff who were responsible weren't in their positions any longer.
The hospital said: "We are saddened by what occurred, and our team continues to keep this patient and their family in our prayers."
LADbible Group have contacted Selby General Hospital for further comment.
Sharon Jacks is far from the first patient to go into hospital for an amputation and wake up to discover that surgeons have removed the wrong limb.
It's happened many times before, including to Canadian man Jason Kennedy after he felt a pain in his right foot and it started bleeding.
The decision was made to amputate and when Jason woke up he felt like he was 'in a bad dream' after seeing surgeons had cut off the wrong limb.
He then had to call his mother and inform her that his surgery was complete, but that surgeons had cut off his left leg instead of the right one.
Topics: US News
Joe Harker