An Ellicott City doctor is accused of medical malpractice for endangering the fertility of a patient. The Baltimore Circuit Court filing states the obstetrician was to perform an operation to remove an ovarian cyst on the left side. The doctor allegedly removed the patient’s healthy, right-side ovary and fallopian tube instead.
The 31-year-old patient who brought the complaint charged the obstetrician with medical malpractice for removing the reproductive body part without permission and operating on the wrong body part. The obstetrician’s former patient claims the medical mistake diminished her chances to have children and damaged her marriage. Beyond the reported negligence, the patient says she still faces cystectomy surgery for the ovary mass that was not removed.
The doctor named in the case is a 1998 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine graduate. The obstetrician practices in two Baltimore hospitals and one Columbia hospital.
The patient’s suspected benign tumor was discovered in a pregnancy ultrasound in 2009 and reconfirmed last year. A cystectomy was recommended and scheduled for September 2010 at St. Agnes Hospital.
During two follow-up visits after the outpatient surgery, the patient allegedly complained to the obstetrician that she felt pain on the right side of her pelvis. The patient said the doctor never acknowledged the medical error.
An emergency room scan, conducted at Howard County General Hospital about a month after the surgery, confirmed the left-side cyst had not been removed. The right-side ovary and fallopian tube, however, were missing.
The medical malpractice suit includes the recommendation by a new gynecologist that the patient undergo a cystectomy.
