Grandma left permanently disfigured after hospital accidentally removed part of her genitalia

An Australian grandmother has been left in horrendous pain and with a permanent disfigurement after she was allegedly mistaken for another patient with the same first name.

Debra Buchanan was admitted to the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital at Sunshine Hospital on January 23 for what was supposed to just be a routine procedure.

She was expecting to have a cancerous skin tag removed from her pelvic area, but instead woke up to find a large section of her external genitalia had been removed instead.

It is alleged that there was a case of mistaken identity, which lead to the wrong procedure being done, an incident which is referred to as a 'wrong-site surgery'.

A 'wrong-site surgery' is also called a 'never event', as there are meant to be so many procedures in place to ensure that they never happen.

Debra Buchanan was left disfigured after the mix-up at the hospital (A Current Affair)

Buchanan told A Current Affair how they called out her name: “They called Deborah, and I said, ‘Did you mean Buchanan?’ And they said, ‘Oh yes, you’ll do'".

“The woman next to me said, ‘I’m Deborah,’ and they said, ‘Oh no, we’ve got the right one’" she recalled.

The patient is a former dental nurse and said she is familiar with the many steps put in place to make sure you have the right person, and said she would never have only called a patient by their first name.

After coming around from the surgery, Buchanan was horrified to find she was haemorrhaging from between her legs.

Alarmed, she called for a nurse urgently and asked "Can you explain why I’m bleeding so badly?".

The grandmother recalled how the nurse said it was 'part of the operation,' to which she said "What operation?... I had it on here," and touched where her skin tag was, only to find it was still there.

A junior surgeon arrived to speak to her, and it's alleged they 'looked at her like she was mad' when she asked why they had operated on her genitals.

She phoned her husband in distress saying they had done the wrong surgery, and then the hospital discharged her.

Buchanan then had to return to the same hospital to have the original, correct surgery done, and was understandably very scared about it.

She said they called her by her first name only, and she was expecting to have just a skin tag removed (A Current Affair)

“I was terrified,” she said. “Every time I have to go to the doctor, anxious; I’ve lost my confidence."

“You can’t make a mistake on a person. It’s not like breaking a cup. It’s life to them.”

According to ABC News, Buchanan's lawyer, Erin Monsalve Fear said the incident was a 'complete systemic failure' by the hospital.

"There's so many safeguards and procedures that should be in place to prevent this from occurring and it's evident that those have simply failed or not been followed in Deb's instance," Monsalve Fear said.

"Deb has now had to go back into surgery to deal with the original cancerous lesion that she was supposed to have operated on," she said.

"So the trauma that has followed that, she's obviously been terrified to go back into surgery after this experience occurred."

She added that Buchanan is seeking damages, but also wants to raise awareness, and claimed that the hospital hasn't given an official apology: "There [has] been some acceptance from the hospital that the wrong procedure was performed, it hasn't really amounted to an apology to Deb."

Western Health chief operating officer John Ferraro said: “Due to our obligations to protect patient privacy and confidentiality, we are unable to comment on the care of any individual patient."

“In line with Victoria’s Statutory Duty of Candour requirements, where a patient adverse event has occurred, we provide an apology, meet with the patient, undertake a review of the incident, and share the findings and actions taken to help prevent a recurrence.

Tyla has reached out to the hospital for comment