An American woman is suing a hospital after doctors amputated the wrong leg, then four months later taking off the correct limb, leaving her a double amputee, reports NBC News.
Sharon Jacks (74), filed her lawsuit this month in Ohio after her left leg was amputated at Selby General Hospital in September 2025. The surgery was meant to remove her right leg.
Jacks, an army veteran, then underwent the originally intended procedure four months later, said her attorney Brad Layne. Both legs were amputated below the knee.
Jacks and her husband named nine defendants in the suit, including the hospital and the medical and surgical teams, accusing them of gross negligence, battery and reckless conduct.
Jacks “suffered physical injury, permanent disability, pain and suffering, emotional distress, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, medical expenses and other damages”, the lawsuit stated. “Defendants acted wilfully, wantonly, recklessly, maliciously, and with conscious disregard for the substantial certainty of catastrophic injury.”
The operation was recommended as part of a treatment plan for Jacks’ squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer.
Layne said the surgical team practitioners took off the wrong leg despite having marked the correct one. The team realised the error during the procedure and told her family before she woke up.
In a statement, the hospital said it was an “avoidable event”. It said it had retrained all of its surgical staff after the operation and the staffers involved in her procedure were “no longer in their positions”.
The surgeon who performed the surgery, Dr Gregory Krivchenia II, who is listed as a defendant, is still licensed to practice in Ohio, but did not immediately return a request for comment.
A receptionist at First Settlement Orthopaedics, where he previously worked, said in a brief phone call that he was retired.
Layne said the wrong-site amputation has changed everything in his client’s life, from her ability to get dressed to her ability to cook for herself.
However, she has been cancer-free since the correct operation was performed.
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