Madera Community Hospital has been fined by the state for a surgery on the wrong side of the body of a patient that led to a delay in the targeted cancer being removed.
The California Department of Public Health said the hospital failed to prevent the surgery on the wrong side of the patient’s colon, which led to an unnecessary surgery and for the possibility of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body.
The state said the wrong-side surgery on April 26, 2016, led to a delay of nearly nine months for the cancer to be removed on Jan. 13, 2017.
The second surgery for the cancerous colon was not performed at Madera Community Hospital.