Missouri Hospital Chain Sorry for Botched Surgery

A suburban St. Louis-based health care company has apologized while acknowledging that a neurosurgeon operated on the wrong side of a patient’s brain.

SSM Health Care’s apology on Tuesday follows a lawsuit filed Friday on behalf of 53-year-old Regina Turner of St. Louis County. Turner’s lawyer, Alvin Wolff Jr., said she went to SSM St. Clare Health Center in Fenton for a left-sided craniotomy bypass to reduce her risk of stroke, which was high.

The surgeon operated on the right side of her skull and brain instead of the left. Wolff says the botched surgery left Turner confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. The suit seeks unspecified damages.

SSM CEO Chris Howard apologized in a written statement and says his organization is “devastated” by the mistake.