A newborn baby born in December in a Tennessee hospital was the victim of wrong-patient surgery after a doctor performed surgery on the wrong infant. One-day-old Nate was taken from his 31-year-old mother, Jennifer Melton, for what she assumed was a routine medical examination. Instead, the surgeon had mistaken Nate for an infant scheduled to have a frenectomy, a procedure to cure ankyloglossia, a condition commonly known as tongue tie.
The surgical procedure cuts the tissue underneath the tongue to free it up to allow for easier nursing, and later in life lets the person eat and speak more easily, as well as keep the teeth clean. When Nate was returned to Melton the nurse announced that everything had gone fine during the “tongue clipping,” and that the procedure would help with the nursing problems, which Nate did not have.
Melton and her partner, 33-year-old Dominque Harper, are outraged. Their baby was returned with blood dripping from underneath his tongue. The surgeon immediately called Melton to apologize, and told her that he had asked for the wrong baby, but that Nate did not experience much discomfort during the procedure, crying just for a little while. He reassured her that no serious harm had been done.
Melton and Harper are suing University Medical Center and the doctor that performed the surgery. Their attorney, Clint Kelly, specializes in medical malpractice cases and says he has never encountered such a horrific case of carelessness in his 20 years of legal work experience.
In the two months that have passed since the surgery, Nate appears well. He does, however, have occasional problems bottle feeding, and sometimes makes gagging sounds while lying on his back.