Woman Sues Yale Medical Center For Surgery Of Wrong Rib

In May, last year, Deborah Craven was admitted to Yale-New Haven medical center. She had to have a "painful and potentially cancerous lesion" on her rib surgically removed.

The lawsuit records that though the radiologists marked the possible cancerous lesion site and inserted metallic coils into her ribs, and later injected a dye that would mark her skin, the team strangely removed the wrong rib, says latino.foxnews.

Dr. Anthony Kim, M.D. and his surgical trainee, Ricardo Quarrie, are in the list of names in the lawsuit filed last week at the New Haven Superior Court. Craven reportedly was not aware that Quarrie, according to the suit, was added to the team of surgeons.

It was only after the surgery that she became conscious, felt pain and realized that her 7th, not 8th rib had been operated.

After becoming aware of the error, Quarrie tried to gloss over it by telling her that "not enough rib" had been operated and a second surgery was called for. She was then subjected to a second surgery.

Her lawyer, Joel T. Faxon, explained in a press release: "The fact that the surgical team operated on the wrong rib despite a clear indication of the proper site is, of course, negligent. But the fact that a cardiothoracic surgeon in training would make the outrageous claim that 'not enough rib had been taken' really takes this to another level of culpability," said Faxon, from Faxon Law Group in New Haven.

"Making the patient undergo another surgery the same day, without owning up to the real medical reason for the repeat surgery is just plain deceitful. If not for the lying, my client would never have instituted a lawsuit. As the old adage goes the cover-up is worse than the crime," he added.

"No one apologized," said  Joel Faxon, Craven's attorney. "And they never explained to her how the mistake was made."

Mark D'Antonio, Media Relations Coordinator for Yale-New Haven Hospital, made a public statement explaining that his institution wants to provide the safest and highest quality of care.

"Even in the best organizations, medical errors may occur. When they do, our goal is to acknowledge them, learn from them, and ensure that we minimize any chance that they ever occur again," the statement read.

"With respect to the case of Ms. Craven, we recognized that an error was made, we informed and apologized to the patient, and we immediately reported it to the Connecticut Department of Public Health."