Debra went in for routine surgery. A catastrophic error changed her life and disfigured her forever

When Debra Buchanan walked through the doors of Sunshine Hospital in Melbourne’s western suburbs, she expected a very routine procedure.

She had no idea she was about to become the victim of a catastrophic mistake that would change her life forever.

“If you knew me before, I was very outgoing, very confident,” she said.

“For six months, I haven’t socialised.”

The grandmother-of-seven was supposed to have a small cancerous skin tag removed from her pelvic area.

Instead, without her knowledge or consent, the hospital removed a large portion of her external genitalia, leaving her permanently disfigured.

“She was in so much pain it wasn’t funny,” her husband Alex said.

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It was the 23rd of January, and Debra’s procedure was booked in at the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital, an extension of Melbourne’s Sunshine Hospital, operated by Western Health.

In what would turn out to be a terrible coincidence, at the same time another woman called Deborah sat in the same pre-op room.

“They called ‘Deborah’ and I said ‘did you mean Buchanan?’ and they said ‘oh yes, you’ll do’ and the woman next to me said ‘I’m Deborah’ and they said ‘oh no, we’ve got the right one’,” Debra said.

“I’ve been a dental nurse for many years and you never call a person or a patient by their first name.”

Debra did what millions of patients do every day, she put her trust in the hands of medical professionals who swore to care for her.

“The anaesthetist was getting ready to put me to sleep, I’m thinking, ‘Where’s the surgeon? Oh well, they must know what they’re doing’ and I went with it,” she said.

To this day, Debra has never met her surgeon – but he met her.

When she finally woke, she realised something was horribly wrong.

“I stood up, walked over to the bathroom door and I just got in the bathroom door and I haemorrhaged everywhere,” she said.

“So I called the nurse, she came in, I said ‘can you explain why I’m bleeding so badly?’

“She said ‘oh, that’s part of the operation’, and I said ‘what operation’, ‘I said I had it on here’, and as I touched it, it was still there.”

The doctor who performed the surgery was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, the hospital sent down a junior surgeon.

“When I told her my story, she said ‘oh no, what we did was a horseshoe shape and we stitched around’ and I said ‘but why were you in there?’,” she said.

“She looked at me like I was mad.”

Debra called her husband Alex to come back to the hospital.

“She said ‘I don’t want you to get angry’,” he said.

“She just said that they’ve done the wrong operation.”

Deb told her husband she wanted to get out of the hospital.

“They discharged me and I didn’t get a wheelchair or anything,” she said.

“I was just left to leave.”

“There’s no post-operative care sheets that’s been given to us or what’s going on here,” Alex said.

Debra says she barely received any explanation of how the catastrophic mishap happened.

“Not really,” she said.

“I got a little bit to say that because of the two Debras and also they were understaffed at the time.

“I found it very difficult to listen to.”

Not only did she suffer the horror of the wrong surgery, but Debra says the surgery that was carried out was botched.

“It was pulled so tight with stitches, it always feels like it’s going to tear,” she said.

Debra tried to find out what happened to the other Deb, but the hospital wouldn’t tell her.

She still doesn’t know.

With no answers and in constant pain for several weeks after the operation, in desperation, the couple decided to seek justice.

Erin Monsalve Fear from Carbone Lawyers said it was genuinely shocking to hear.

“It was almost unbelievable,” Monsalve Fear said.

“The fact that she was never consulted nor consented appropriately for the surgery prior to it taking place and I think that’s one of the biggest things that it boils down to.”

As Debra was still coming to terms with what happened to her, she had no choice but to confront the cruel reality that her cancer was still there.

She said she had the procedure at the same hospital, an experience which she described as “horrific”.

“I was terrified,” she said.

It’s completely destroyed the happiness she shared with her husband that was once filled with travel and happy memories.

Its impact is felt in every aspect of their lives.

“Intimacy is one, there is none,” she said.

“Fear, every time I have to go to the doctor, anxious, I’ve lost my confidence.”

Alex said Debra has been able to “hide it really well”.

“Then all of a sudden you realise that she’s pushing you away,” he said.

Debra says she still hasn’t received a proper apology from the hospital.

“Not really, not a personal one,” she said.

“Put yourself in Deb’s shoes to have no answers, no follow-up, no clarity really as to what’s gone on from the surgeon who performed this surgery on her, it’s pretty abysmal,” Monsalve Fear said.

Six months on, Debra still doesn’t know if she’ll ever fully recover.

She’s fighting to make sure no other patient has to endure the pain and needless suffering which has ruined her life.

“You can’t do this, you can’t make a mistake on a person, it’s not like breaking a cup, it’s life to them,” Deb said.

“I know a lot of people are too frightened to talk sometimes,” she added.

“Well, I’m not, I need to get it out there so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

Statement from Western Health chief operating officer John Ferraro

All patients have the right to safe, high-quality care, and patient safety remains our highest priority.

Due to our obligations to protect patient privacy and confidentiality, we are unable to comment on the care of any individual patient.

In line with Victoria’s Statutory Duty of Candour requirements, where a patient adverse event has occurred, we provide an apology, meet with the patient, undertake a review of the incident, and share the findings and actions taken to help prevent a recurrence.

We are committed to open and transparent communication with patients throughout this process.