Woman sues hospital for removing wrong rib and trying to cover it up

Saturday, March 26, 2016

A doctor at Yale Hospital in Connecticut is being sued by a patient for not only removing the wrong rib from her body, but also allegedly trying to convince her that no mistake had been made.
According to the NY Daily Mail, Deborah Craven, a 60 year old woman from Milford Connecticut, was scheduled to have her eighth rib removed last May due to a lesion. However, after the operation, Craven reportedly still experienced pain in the same area, so her doctor ordered her to have an x-ray exam to find out why she was still in pain after the successful surgery.


According to the scan, not only had doctors removed the wrong rib, but the metal coils used in the operation had also been left inside of her.

Craven’s suit explained that Dr. Anthony Kim, who did not take part in the surgery, told her of the mistake and booked her in for a follow-up surgery the next day. The doctor who made the mistake of removing the wrong rib, Dr. Ricardo Quarrie, a resident at the hospital, told Craven that her surgery was not due to the wrong rib being removed but that not enough of the rib had been removed.

Craven believes that Quarrie lied “to cover up the removal of the wrong body part” in an effort to prevent her from accusing him of incompetence and negligence.
According to Craven’s lawyer, Joel Faxon, Craven said if Quarrie hadn't tried to cover up his mistake by lying to her, she would have never even initiated the lawsuit.

Yale-New Haven Hospital acknowledged that an error had been made and announced their plans to “immediately report it to the Connecticut Department of Public Health.”


The case is in court and investigations are underway.