By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-09-30 22:01:57 | Updated at 2026-10-01 04:38:02
9 hours ago
An Ohio woman has filed suit after waking up from surgery to discover a horrible mistake had been made — her surgical team had amputated the wrong leg, according to her civil complaint.
Sharon Jacks, who is now a double amputee, was scheduled to have a below-the-knee amputation of her right leg at Selby General Hospital in Marietta, Ohio, on September 19, 2025, to address a dangerous skin cancer there.
However, in recovery the 74-year-old woman found that her left leg was missing, according to a copy of the 31-page lawsuit published by WBNS in Columbus.
“She went into surgery, and when she woke up, the wrong leg had been taken off,” Jacks’ attorney, Brad Layne, told the outlet. “It defies explanation, obviously.”
The limb that was originally supposed to be amputated had to later be removed as well to prevent spread of the carcinoma to the lymph nodes and likely result in a fatal prognosis. This left her without either leg.
The lawsuit names as defendants the hospital, her surgeon, and other members of the surgical team, accusing them of “a complete failure of basic safety procedures.”
Her lawyer said in a press release that “there is simply no excuse” for the malpractice and that “complete and total failure by multiple medical professionals caused this catastrophe.”
According to Jacks’ attorney, medical records he reviewed indicate the surgeon initially marked the correct leg, but that inexplicably did not prevent the mistake.
“The mark was still on the correct leg after the wrong leg had been taken off,” Layne said.
According to the complaint, the medical team had two surgical “time-outs” before Jacks’ procedure. A time-out is a safety practice surgical teams use to make sure they have the correct patient, the correct procedure, and the correct location before they proceed.
“Despite several opportunities to identify the mistake and stop the procedure, the surgical team somehow never noticed they were operating on the wrong leg,” he said. “Now every day for the rest of her life, Sharon Jacks must live with the consequences of those failures.”
He added, “Every person in that operating room is responsible to make sure that that is verified before moving forward, and that includes the doctor, the staff, the nurses, the anesthesiologist, everybody that’s involved.”
The lawsuit states that surgery on the wrong place is viewed as one of the most serious preventable medical errors, so rare it is referred to as a “never event,” by the healthcare industry.
“It shouldn’t happen in any type of medicine. It shouldn’t happen anywhere. It shouldn’t happen in a veterinary setting, even,” Layne said.
The report of the lawsuit has gone viral on social media.
The lawsuit does not seek a specific monetary award but leaves it to the court to award compensatory and punitive damages for Jacks to cover previous and future medical expenses, “pain and suffering, emotional distress,” permanent impairment, and “loss of enjoyment of life.”
Selby General Hospital, located in Marietta, a town of only 13,000 located along the Ohio River 120 miles southeast of Columbus, confirmed to the news outlet that an “adverse surgical event” happened in September 2025. It said the surgical team “responded immediately to address the medical needs of the patient involved and provide support to their family.”
“Our proactive review of what took place confirmed this was an avoidable event, and that our expected operating room procedures were not followed. Those involved were held accountable for their actions and are no longer in their positions,” the hospital said in a statement to WBNS.
The hospital added that it has “implemented corrective measures” to “prevent a situation like this from recurring.”
Breitbart News contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
