Ghost surgery

Last updated

A ghost surgery is a surgery in which the person who performs the operation, the "ghost surgeon" or "ghost doctor", is not the surgeon that was hired for and is credited with the operation. The ghost doctor substitutes the hired surgeon while the patient is unconscious from anesthesia. [1] [2] Ghost doctors are often unlicensed and unqualified to perform the operations they are hired for. [1] [3] Ghost surgery is widely considered to be unethical. [4]

Contents

Today, ghost surgery is particularly common in the South Korean cosmetic surgery industry, in which it is "rampant." [3]

History

The term "ghost surgery" was originally used to refer to qualified surgeons performing operations in the place of the unqualified physicians credited with the operation. [5] [6] By the late 1970s, following multiple highly publicized cases of medical equipment salesmen participating in surgery, it came to refer to multiple kinds of scenarios in which one individual substitutes the officially credited surgeon in an operation. [5] [7]

The Lifflander Report, a 1978 investigation commissioned by Speaker of the State Assembly of New York Stanley Steingut, found that 50-95% of surgeries in teaching hospitals were performed by residents under supervision, rather than by the lead surgeon. The report concluded that this generally does not decrease the quality of care, and is necessary for medical students to gain experience. However, patients typically do not understand and are not properly notified of the extent to which persons besides the lead surgeon will participate in the surgery. [4] [7]

Ghost surgery has continued as a practice into the present day; most reports of ghost surgery in the United States involve associates or residents performing operations to a greater extent than the patient consented to. [8] [9]

In South Korea, ghost surgery boomed in the 2010s with the increase in demand for plastic surgery, following the government's promotion of medical tourism. Ghost surgeries allow surgeons to double-book operations and otherwise maximize the number of patients they accept. [2] Reports of ghost surgery in South Korea often involve dentists, nurses, or salespeople. One former ghost doctor reported that most substitutes were dentists. [1] [2] [3]

Prevalence

As ghost surgeries are untracked, it is unclear how common they are. Patients typically discover a ghost surgery took place after undergoing an unsuccessful operation. [8] [9]

Hospital records from Parkland Hospital in 2007-2008 showed that there were 161 surgeries in which residents operated for some time without supervision. Of these surgeries, 18% of the time the surgeon was not present for any part of the operation. Overall, across these surgeries, the surgeon was absent from 83% of the total operating time. [10]

Ghost surgeries are "rampant" in the South Korean cosmetic surgery industry today, and are increasingly common nationwide in other areas such as spinal surgeries. [1] [2] [3] The Korean Society of Plastic Surgeons estimated that there were about 100,000 victims of ghost surgery in South Korea between 2008 and 2014. About five patients died during ghost surgeries in South Korea between 2014 and 2022. [2]

High profile cases

Franklin Mirando

In 1975, William MacKay, the general sales manager of a prosthetics company, participated in the bone surgery of Franklin Mirando at the request of the lead surgeons, David Lipton and Harold Massoff. [7] [11] MacKay had never gone to high school and had no medical training, but was interested in surgery; by the time of Mirando's operation, he had been frequently involved in surgical procedures, especially in those where prosthetics his company sold were involved. [7] [12]

MacKay was present for Mirando's operation while his hip was replaced, using equipment from his company. [12] Feeling that his advice was being ignored by Lipton and Massoff, he left to go golfing, but was called back to the operating room by Lipton and Massoff when it was discovered the implant had come loose. [12] [13] MacKay spent three and a half hours operating. [7] It was later found that medical records had been manipulated to remove evidence of MacKay's participation in the operation. [12]

Mirando, who had been permanently crippled by the 10-hour operation, filed a $2 million malpractice suit against Lipton, Massoff, and Smithtown General Hospital; the case was settled out of court for $1 million in 1980. [11] [13] He stated that he was unaware of MacKay's involvement when suing and that he filed the suit because the surgery had only worsened his condition. [13]

Lipton and Massoff were indicted for allowing a non-licensed person to practice medicine and for manipulation of medical records, but charges were dropped in 1978, after the District Attorney spearheading the investigation was defeated for re-election. [12] [13]

Kwon Dae-hee

In October 2016, university student Kwon Dae-hee died from excessive bleeding after undergoing a jawline surgery partially conducted by a ghost doctor. [1] [2] [14]

Kwon had been bullied in high school for his chin shape and was insecure about his appearance; he booked his cosmetic surgery after seeing an ad for Center A, a well-known cosmetic surgery clinic in Seoul at the time. His family was not aware of the surgery until Kwon's subsequent hospitalization. [1] [14]

After reviewing CCTV footage of the surgery, Kwon's mother found that much of the operation took place with a general doctor, rather than the hired surgeon, in charge, and portions of the operation were performed by nursing assistants with neither doctor nor surgeon present. [1] [2] The hired surgeon, who had been explicitly advertised as performing surgeries from start to finish, was carrying out operations on multiple patients at the same time. [15]

After the surgery, both doctors went home. Kwon lost over 3.5 liters of blood, over three times the amount later reported by the medical staff; the unsupervised assistants had to mop the bloodied floor over a dozen times. [1] [14] Kwon was transferred to the hospital that night, and died seven weeks later. [1]

Kwon's family won 430 million won in damages against the clinic in 2019. [1] The surgeon in the case was sentenced in 2021 to three years of prison for involuntary manslaughter. [2]

Following Kwon's death, his mother protested regularly in front of the Korea National Assembly Proceeding Hall to call for a bill, sometimes known as the "Kwon Dae-hee bill", that mandates the installation of security cameras in operating rooms. [1] [16] The bill was passed in August 2021, in part due to the public response to Kwon's death. [14] [16] The bill received objections from doctors, hospitals and medical groups, including the Korean Medical Association, claiming that the cameras in the operating rooms would undermine trust in doctors, violate patient privacy and discourage doctors from taking risks to save lives. A poll by the Anti‑Corruption and Civil Rights Commission found that 97.9% of respondents supported the bill. [16]

Ghost surgery was included in the plot of Squid Game . [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christiaan Barnard</span> South African cardiac surgeon (1922–2001)

Christiaan Neethling Barnard was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident victim Denise Darvall into the chest of 54-year-old Louis Washkansky who regained full consciousness and was able to talk easily with his wife, before dying eighteen days later of pneumonia, largely brought on by the anti-rejection drugs that suppressed his immune system. Barnard had told Mr. and Mrs. Washkansky that the operation had an 80% chance of success, an assessment which has been criticised as misleading. Barnard's second transplant patient, Philip Blaiberg, whose operation was performed at the beginning of 1968, returned home from the hospital and lived for a year and a half.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plastic surgery</span> Medical surgical specialty

Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction, or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes craniofacial surgery, hand surgery, microsurgery, and the treatment of burns. While reconstructive surgery aims to reconstruct a part of the body or improve its functioning, cosmetic surgery aims to improve the appearance of it. A comprehensive definition of plastic surgery has never been established, because it has no distinct anatomical object and thus overlaps with practically all other surgical specialties. An essential feature of plastic surgery is that it involves the treatment of conditions that require or may require tissue relocation skills.

Bloodless surgery is a non-invasive surgical method developed by orthopedic surgeon, Adolf Lorenz, who was known as "the bloodless surgeon of Vienna". His medical practice was a consequence of his severe allergy to carbolic acid routinely used in operating rooms of the era. His condition forced him to become a "dry surgeon". Contemporary usage of the term refers to both invasive and noninvasive medical techniques and protocols. The expression does not mean surgery that makes no use of blood or blood transfusion. Rather, it refers to surgery performed without transfusion of allogeneic blood. Champions of bloodless surgery do, however, transfuse products made from allogeneic blood and they also make use of pre-donated blood for autologous transfusion. Interest in bloodless surgery has arisen for several reasons. Jehovah's Witnesses reject blood transfusions on religious grounds; others may be concerned about bloodborne diseases, such as hepatitis and AIDS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile Army Surgical Hospital</span> Decommissioned type of U.S. Army medical unit

Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH) were U.S. Army field hospital units conceptualized in 1946 as replacements for the obsolete World War II-era Auxiliary Surgical Group hospital units. MASH units were in operation from the Korean War to the Gulf War before being phased out in the early 2000s. Each MASH unit had 60 beds, as well as surgical, nursing, and other enlisted and officer staff available at all times. MASH units filled a vital role in military medicine by providing support to army units upwards of 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers. These units had a low mortality rate compared to others, as the transportation time to hospitals was shorter, resulting in fewer patients dying within the "Golden Hour", the first hour after an injury is first sustained, which is referred to in trauma as the "most important hour". The U.S. Army deactivated the last MASH unit on February 16, 2006, and the successors to Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals are combat support hospitals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Marion Sims</span> American physician and gynecologist (1813-1883)

James Marion Sims was an American physician in the field of surgery. His most famous work was the development of a surgical technique for the repair of vesicovaginal fistula, a severe complication of obstructed childbirth. He is also remembered for inventing the Sims speculum, Sims sigmoid catheter, and the Sims position. Against significant opposition, he established, in New York, the first hospital specifically for women. He was forced out of the hospital he founded because he insisted on treating cancer patients; he played a small role in the creation of the nation's first cancer hospital, which opened after his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blepharoplasty</span> Surgical modification of the eyelids

Blepharoplasty is the plastic surgery operation for correcting defects, deformities, and disfigurations of the eyelids; and for aesthetically modifying the eye region of the face. With the excision and the removal, or the repositioning of excess tissues, such as skin and adipocyte fat, and the reinforcement of the corresponding muscle and tendon tissues, the blepharoplasty procedure resolves functional and cosmetic problems of the periorbita, which is the area from the eyebrow to the upper portion of the cheek. The procedure is more common among women, who accounted for approximately 85% of blepharoplasty procedures in 2014 in the US and 88% of such procedures in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Stewart Halsted</span> American surgeon (1852–1922)

William Stewart Halsted, M.D. was an American surgeon who emphasized strict aseptic technique during surgical procedures, was an early champion of newly discovered anesthetics, and introduced several new operations, including the radical mastectomy for breast cancer. Along with William Osler, Howard Atwood Kelly and William H. Welch, Halsted was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His operating room at Johns Hopkins Hospital is in Ward G, and was described as a small room where medical discoveries and miracles took place. According to an intern who once worked in Halsted's operating room, Halsted had unique techniques, operated on the patients with great confidence and often had perfect results which astonished the interns.

Stanley H. Biber was an American physician who was a pioneer in sex reassignment surgery, performing thousands of procedures during his long career.

Penis transplantation is a surgical transplant procedure in which a penis is transplanted to a patient. The penis may be an allograft from a human donor, or it may be grown artificially, though the latter has not yet been transplanted onto a human.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surgeon</span> Physician with surgical specialty

In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as physicians before specializing in surgery.

Psychosurgery is a surgical operation that destroys brain tissue in order to alleviate the symptoms of mental disorder. The lesions are usually, but not always, made in the frontal lobes. Tissue may be destroyed by cutting, burning, freezing, electric current or radiation. The first systematic attempt at psychosurgery is commonly attributed to the Swiss psychiatrist Gottlieb Burckhardt who operated on six patients in 1888. In 1889 Thomas Claye Shaw reported mental improvement in a case of General Paralysis of the Insane after a neurosurgical intervention. This led to a lively debate in the British Medical Journal on the usefulness of neurosurgery for the treatment of insanity. In the 1930s the Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz developed a surgical technique for the treatment of mental illness and called it "leucotomy" or "psychosurgery". Moniz' technique was adapted and promoted by American neurologist Walter Freeman and his neurosurgeon colleague James W. Watts. They called their operation, where burr holes are drilled in the side of the skull and the white matter is sliced through in order to sever the connections between the frontal lobes and deeper structures in the brain, lobotomy. In the United Kingdom it became known as the standard Freeman-Watts prefrontal leucotomy. British psychiatrist William Sargant met Freeman on a visit to the United States and on his return to England encouraged doctors at the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol to instigate a programme of psychosurgery.

Perioperative nursing is a nursing specialty that works with patients who are having operative or other invasive procedures. Perioperative nurses work closely with surgeons, anaesthesiologists, nurse anaesthetists, surgical technologists, and nurse practitioners. They perform preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care primarily in the operating theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yanhee Hospital</span> Hospital in BangkokYanhee, Thailand

Yanhee International Hospital is a multi-service general hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, that specializes in a range of medical and cosmetic services. Yanhee comprises a 15-story hospital building with a 400-bed capacity, 150 full-time doctors, 120 part-time health professionals, and 800 nurses. Additionally, Yanhee operates 95 outpatient examination rooms, 12 major and 30 minor operating rooms, an 18-bed Intensive Care Unit, emergency rooms, delivery rooms, a diagnostic laboratory and a nursery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korean beauty standards</span>

Korean beauty standards have become a well-known feature of Korean culture. In 2015, a global survey by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons placed South Korea in the top ten of countries who had the highest rate of cosmetic surgeries.

Christopher Daniel Duntsch is a former American neurosurgeon who has been nicknamed Dr. D. and Dr. Death for multiple incidents of gross malpractice while working at hospitals in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, resulting in the maiming of many patients and two deaths. He was accused of injuring 33 out of 38 patients in less than two years before his license was revoked by the Texas Medical Board. In 2017, Duntsch was convicted of maiming one of his patients and sentenced to life imprisonment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horace Smithy</span> American cardiac surgeon

Horace Gilbert Smithy Jr. was an American cardiac surgeon who in 1948 performed the first successful mitral valve repair since the 1920s. Smithy's work was complicated because it predated heart-lung machines or open heart surgery. Though his procedure did not become a definitive treatment for valvular heart disease, he introduced the technique of injecting novocaine into the heart to avoid arrhythmias during surgery, and he showed that it was feasible to access and operate on the heart's valves.

The Overseas Plastic Surgery Appeal is a registered charity in the UK, that exists to provide free facial surgery for poor children and young adults in Pakistan. The OPSA team operate on facial abnormalities including cleft lip and palate.

South Korea has been considered a medical tourism destination since 2009, attracting more than 2.76 million foreign patients between then and 2019. The increasing number of patients seeking medical treatment in South Korea do so for multiple reasons, such as low medical costs, high quality medical services, short waiting times, and tourism packages combining relaxation and tourism.

<i>Ghost Doctor</i> 2022 South Korean fantasy television series

Ghost Doctor is a 2022 South Korean television series directed by Boo Seong-cheol and starring Rain, Kim Bum, Uee, and Son Na-eun. The series revolves around two doctors from extreme backgrounds and skills merging into one person. It aired from January 3 to February 22, 2022, on tvN's Mondays and Tuesdays at 22:30 (KST) for 16 episodes. It is available for streaming on TVING, iQiyi, and Netflix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmetic surgery in South Korea</span> Surgery for beauty enhancement in the social context of South Korea

Cosmetic surgery, also referred to as aesthetic surgery, is a surgical procedure which endeavours to improve the physical aspects of one's appearance to become more aesthetically pleasing. It is closely linked to plastic surgery, but cosmetic surgery focuses more on the improvement of one's appearance, for example by reducing the signs of aging, instead of existing for health purposes. Motivation for plastic surgery has been debated throughout Korean society. Holliday and Elfving-Hwang suggest that the pressure of success in work and marriage is deeply rooted in one's ability to manage their body which is influenced by beauty. As companies helping with matchmaking for marriage and even job applications require a photo of the individual, it is inevitable that the Korean population feels pressure to undergo plastic surgery to achieve the "natural beauty".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Seo, Yoonjung; Hollingsworth, Julia (11 April 2021). "In South Korea, patients pay for a star plastic surgeon – and get operated by a ghost doctor". CNN. Retrieved 2022-09-24.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Yoon, John (13 May 2022). "South Korea Turns to Surveillance as 'Ghost Surgeries' Shake Faith in Hospitals". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-09-24.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hong, Seung Eun; Hong, Min Ki; Park, Bo Young; Woo, Kyong Jae; Kang, So Ra (2018). "Is the "ghost surgery" the subject of legal punishment in Korea?". Annals of Surgical Treatment and Research. 94 (4): 167–173. doi:10.4174/astr.2018.94.4.167. ISSN   2288-6575. PMC   5880973 . PMID   29629350.
  4. 1 2 Dunn, Debra (December 2015). "Ghost Surgery: A Frank Look at the Issue and How to Address It". AORN Journal. 102 (6): 602–616. doi:10.1016/j.aorn.2015.10.003. PMID   26616321.
  5. 1 2 Rosenfeld, Neill (February 1, 1978). "Report Criticizes 'Ghost Surgery'". Newsday. pp. 7Q.
  6. ↑ "Doctor Unit Bars 'Ghost Surgeons'". New York Times. May 14, 1952. p. 29.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Holmes, M. K. (May 1980). "Ghost surgery". Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine. 54 (4): 412–414. PMC   1805169 . PMID   6929212.
  8. 1 2 Shelton, Deborah L. (2012-09-29). "'Ghost surgery': When your surgeon isn't the one you expected". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
  9. 1 2 Hunt, Peter (2020-09-18). "'Ghost surgery' and Informed Consent Fraud is Common". APRA. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
  10. ↑ Huffman, Charlotte; Smith, Mark (November 21, 2019). "'Ghost surgery': Is the doctor you chose the one holding the scalpel? Maybe not". WFAA.
  11. 1 2 Peterson, Iver (1977-11-02). "2 L. I. Doctors Reported Indicted; Salesman Allegedly Aided Surgery". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-03-04.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 "Book Review Section: Salesman Surgeon, by William MacKay". Medicolegal News. Spring 1979. p. 13.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Kennedy, Shawn G. (September 17, 1980). "$1 Million Settles Lawsuit For Medical Malpractice". New York Times. pp. B2.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Muzaffar, Maroosha (September 1, 2021). "How South Korea lost faith in its surgeons". Independent.
  15. ↑ Park, Han-na (Jul 29, 2020). "Do you trust your surgeon?". The Korea Herald .
  16. 1 2 3 Cha, Sangmi (August 31, 2021). "South Korean lawmakers mandate cameras in operating rooms after surgery deaths". Reuters.
  17. ↑ Yoon, John (2022-05-13). "South Korea Turns to Surveillance as 'Ghost Surgeries' Shake Faith in Hospitals". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-02-19. Fears about ghost surgeries were a plot point in the Korean Netflix hit "Squid Game."
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.