Physicians usually take the utmost precautions when performing surgery. In spite of such precautions, however, serious medical mishaps do occur. A doctor at Sloan-Kettering Hospital in Manhattan performed brain surgery on a patient with a brain tumor. Instead of operating on the side with the tumor, he operated on the other side of the brain. During the surgery he realized his mistake, but it was too late. The patient died a few days after the surgery. The patient's daughter sued the doctor and won. The doctor was fired, but he still practices medicine today.

Another medical mishap involved a doctor from Tampa, Florida. In 1995, he amputated the wrong leg of a patient. The doctor was working at University Community Hospital when he amputated the left leg of a patient instead of the gangrenous right leg. The doctor was put on probation and reinstated in 1999. The patient sued the hospital for $900,000 and also received another $250,000 from the doctor's insurance company. The doctor continues to practice in Florida.

Medical mishaps occur for a variety of reasons. Sometimes one patient's chart is mixed up with another patient, or x-rays or other tests are mislabeled. Whatever the reason, such mishaps are often a question of life and death for the patient.