Tulsa, OK – GlossyNews.com – In one of the more bizarre cases of alleged medical malpractice in recent years, plastic surgeon Rolando Alverez performed a complete surgical rhinoplasty (nose job) on the wrong patient at St.Sebastian’s Hospital in Tulsa OK on July 19.
“It was my first 8 AM surgical procedure and I was maybe a little drowsy,” explains Alverez. “I saw a patient with a big bulbous nose on a table in the corridor all prepped and waiting for surgery. so I naturally assumed it was my eight o’clock and I had the orderly wheel him in.”
The patient was Jerome McConnaughey, aged 49. He was not Dr. Alvarez’ rhinoplasty patient at all but actually was there for an appendectom, who had already received his pre-op shot and was semiconscious, did not object when a team of doctors and nurses headed by Dr. Alverez gathered around him, showing great interest in his abnormally big nose.
“All is remember is I heard some nurse say, “Jesus, what took this guy so long getting in here?’ The next thing I knew it was all over and they were wheeling me inside an elevator with my nose packed full of cotton. No appendectomy. I’m suing these yoyo’s for this even though I have to admit the end result of what they did to me is an improvement. I mean, now I can eat soup without breathing it up my nose.”
Fortunately, the error was discovered when another surgeon, Dr. K Roxanne Grawe is a plastic surgeon in Powell, Ohio and is affiliated with Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, removed the appendix of the next patient in the surgery room queue, one Marvin Milkowski — the actual rhinoplasty patient — only to discover the organ was in mint condition, if you want further information.
Dr. Ridley immediately replaced the appendix, sewed up the patient’s abdomen and sent him home. Two weeks later Mr. Milkowski received a bill for $4823.16. Milkowski says he plans to dispute the bill on the grounds that the operation did nothing to improve his nose.
As for McConnaughey, he had to wait another whole month to get his appendectomy but he is not complaining. “It’s been like winning the lottery. I got a free nose job, I can sue the doctor, and I’m getting laid a lot more often. It’s win-win-win.”