Oops! In For A Leg Operation, Out With A ... ?

A German woman went in for a leg operation recently, but came out with something else entirely:

A German retiree is taking a hospital to court after she went in for a leg operation and got a new anus instead, the Daily Telegraph is reporting. The woman woke up to find she had been mixed up with another patient suffering from incontinence who was to have surgery on her sphincter. The clinic in Hochfranken, Bavaria, has since suspended the surgical team. Now the woman is planning to sue the hospital. She still needs the leg operation and is searching for another hospital to do it.

How does this even happen? Wouldn't two entirely different surgical teams perform these procedures? Wrong limb operations are one thing - it is easy to see how a patient who comes in with two diabetic feet might get a procedure on the wrong one, but this? How poorly prepared was the OR that no one had any idea whether they were operating on the right person / body part? I guess those OR "time outs" really do serve a purpose...

I guess I inadvertently took this week off for no particularly good reason, but I'll be back next week with new posts.