Surgeons suspended over knee joint blunder

A surgical team has been suspended after a right knee joint was mistakenly put on a patient's left leg.

The Royal College of Surgeons has announced an independent inquiry into the incident at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales.

Annie May Carter, a pensioner, had to have a second operation the day after she first underwent surgery for the replacement joint to be able to walk again.

Mrs Carter, who is considering suing the hospital, said: "All of a sudden all the doctors came running around the bed and said a mistake had been made. They had put the right knee component on the left knee and another operation was required."

A spokesman for North Glamorgan NHS Trust said: "We have apologised to the patient and are pleased that she is making a good recovery after a second operation.

"The team that carried out the initial operation on 20 August has been suspended, which has resulted in all orthopaedic operations at the hospital being cancelled because of a lack of staff."

A statement from the trust said: "Although this was not life-threatening and was rapidly spotted and rectified, with no long-term effects for the patient, the trust takes any such incident seriously."

Last year doctors at the hospital sent home an elderly patient after failing to notice on an X-ray that she had fractured her hip in a fall. Eileen Thomas, 75, was told to take painkillers.