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In 2004, a surgeon at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences operated on the wrong side of a 15-year-old boy’s brain leaving him permanently impaired. The boy went in for surgery due to seizures, but the surgeon operated on the wrong side of his brain causing irreparable damage. After realizing what he had done, the surgeon continued and moved on to the correct side of the brain but never told the patient and his family. After the surgery, the injury was never revealed and only discovered 18 months later during a MRI. The State Claims Commission, a quasi-legal body that determines liability of immune State agencies, has decided to award the boy $2 million for his injuries. The decision held that UAMS employees failed to follow surgery policies and should have alerted the family once an error occurred during surgery. The $2 million award equals the amount the boy’s family has paid for treatment over the 2 years following the surgery.

Read the article at Arkansas Online.