A Wairarapa District Health Board orthopaedic surgeon has been told to apologise to a patient and undergo further training after accidentally setting his leg on fire during knee surgery.
A report on the incident, released by Health and Disability Commissioner Anthony Hill today, found the surgeon was in breach of the agency's code of consumer rights for failures in the care provided to the man who was undergoing the surgery.
The report states that: "During knee surgery the surgeon applied Betadine with alcohol on the edge of the man’s wound to minimise the risk of infection.
"The surgeon then applied diathermy without waiting for the alcohol solution to dry first. As a result, the man’s leg caught fire and he sustained burns."
It found that DHB staff had a limited awareness of the risk of fire during surgery, and there was a lack of appropriate guidance in the DHB’s policy in relation to fire hazards at the time of the incident.
Mr Hill recommended that the DHB and the surgeon apologise to the man and he recommended that the surgeon undertake further education and training on fire hazards in operating theatres.
Further recommendations were made by Mr Hill to ensure a repeat of the incident doesn't happen again
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