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Hospital amputates wrong leg during surgery, lawsuit alleges

By Drooid · Sep 30, 2026, 3:08 PM UTC · How we work

Summary

Selby Hospital Wrong Amputation

Selby General Hospital amputated Sharon Jacks’s left leg instead of the scheduled right leg, leaving her a double amputee.
The surgery was scheduled for September 19, 2025, to remove Jacks’s right leg.
Jacks filed a lawsuit on September 15, 2026, naming the surgeon, operating team and Selby General Hospital.
Attorney Brad Layne said the surgeon marked the correct leg, yet the left leg was removed despite two time-outs.

Summary

Memorial Health Lawsuit

A lawsuit names Memorial Health System’s Marietta Memorial Hospital and First Settlement Orthopedics among nine defendants.
The suit also includes Marietta Area Health Care Inc. and Marietta Health Care Physicians Inc.
Kayser, Layne & Clerk PLLC of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, represents plaintiff Jacks.
The complaint seeks compensatory and punitive damages, plus any relief allowed under Ohio law.

History

Historical Context

In 2008 the World Health Organization released the Surgical Safety Checklist, a tool championed by Atul Gawande that reduced complications from 11 % to 7 % in a study of 7,688 patients across eight hospitals. The checklist’s mandatory “time-out” echoes the Joint Commission’s 2004 Universal Protocol. Ohio judges now examine Selby General Hospital’s adherence, echoing the checklist’s proven impact on preventing wrong-site surgery.

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Selby Hospital Wrong Amputation

Selby General Hospital amputated Sharon Jacks’s left leg instead of the scheduled right leg, leaving her a double amputee.
The surgery was scheduled for September 19, 2025, to remove Jacks’s right leg.
Jacks filed a lawsuit on September 15, 2026, naming the surgeon, operating team and Selby General Hospital.
Attorney Brad Layne said the surgeon marked the correct leg, yet the left leg was removed despite two time-outs.

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