A resident of Gebze, Turkey, Murat Tarakçı, said that a private university hospital in the Tuzla district inserted a tube into his left ear instead of the right ear, which had been scheduled for surgery. He was then operated on again under general anesthesia later the same day, the İHA news agency reported.
“Although the examination results clearly indicated that the right ear required intervention, they operated on my left ear. After the surgery, I felt severe pain in my left ear and asked the staff which ear had been operated on. They told me it was the left one. I then told them that they had made a mistake,” Tarakçı said.
According to him, after the error was discovered, the surgical team reconvened, and the patient was taken back into surgery under general anesthesia on the same day — this time for the procedure on his right ear.
Tarakçı said that undergoing two operations in one day was a traumatic experience for him. He noted that he did not know exactly what procedures had been performed during the second operation.
After the surgeries, the patient said he experienced persistent noise and ringing in his ears, hearing loss, and balance problems.
Tarakçı’s lawyer, Hakan Yıldız, said he had initiated legal proceedings and described the incident as a “wrong-site surgery.” According to him, all medical records specified the right ear, but the initial procedure was performed on the left.
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