Family says mix-up leads to surgery on wrong baby
LEBANON, TN--A new mom still in the hospital thought a nurse was taking her newborn son for a routine physical. Hours later, she realized she was very wrong.
Her baby boy named Nate was taken into surgery without any parental consent surgery that was supposed to be for another baby. This happened in a hospital near Nashville, Tennessee.
Jennifer Melton's attorney says the procedure called a frenulectomy, cut a flap of skin under the baby's tongue. This is usually done for babies born with a condition that restricts the tongue's range of motion. The family says Nate's tongue was perfectly normal.
"It's recklessness. There's no excuse for cutting on a healthy child. There's no excuse for mixing up babies at a hospital," said Attorney Cliny Kelly.
According to the family, the doctor admitted his mistake, writing in a hospital progress report that he asked for the wrong baby and likely performed the procedure on the wrong child. He wrote he admitted the mistake and apologized.