Florida Surgeon mistakenly removes patient’s liver instead of his spleen

A 70-year-old man was experiencing pain in the left side of his abdomen. He was in the Florida panhandle visiting from his home state of Alabama. Doctors advised him to stay in FL for the procedure to take place.

Intending to remove what he thought was a diseased spleen, he cut out the man’s liver. This led quickly to severe bleeding and death. An autopsy confirmed that the man still had his spleen. A pathology report found that the organ the doctor removed during the surgery and labeled ‘spleen’ was in fact the patient’s liver.

It was reported that the same surgeon who headed the operation had mistakenly removed part of another patient’s pancreas a year earlier. That matter was settled  privately.