http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071127/NEWS/711270347/1006/NEWSA surgery meant to reverse a colostomy on a Dover man went horribly wrong last year, resulting in fecal mater being discharged from his penis and urine passing through his colon, according to a lawsuit filed in Superior Court.
During the procedure, the suit alleges doctors at Kent General Hospital improperly stapled the colon to the bladder instead of the rectal stump. This left the patient with diarrhea, as well as gas and liquid stool passing from his penis.
The man was taken to Christiana Hospital 12 days later to have the procedure corrected, but not until after much suffering and embarrassment as well as "disfigurement and disability," the suit claims. It also affected life at home with his wife, who also is suing the three doctors involved in the allegedly botched procedure, Surgical Associates P.A. and Bayhealth Medical Center Inc.
Bayhealth Medical and Surgical Associates, where the three doctors practice, declined to comment.
Dr. Scott D. Goldstein, director of colon and rectal surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, said he had not seen the suit and is not familiar with the specific case. He said this type of surgical error has been documented before, "but it should be rare as hen's teeth."