Horrific hospital blunder as surgeons amputate the WRONG leg forcing woman to become double amputee, lawsuit claims

DAILYMAIL • 1h ago

By AISHA DIOMANDE 20:11 29 Sep 2026, updated 20:11 29 Sep 2026

An Ohio woman is a victim of a double amputation after her surgeon allegedly mistook her right leg for her left.

Sharon Jacks is now suing a Selby General Hospital surgeon after the planned below-the-knee amputation of her right leg was allegedly botched, leaving her with no legs.

According to a 32-page lawsuit filed by Jacks and her attorney Brad Layne, the performance of the surgeon ‘constituted a complete failure of basic patient safety procedures and represented a never event under accepted healthcare standards.’

Though Jacks was scheduled to have her cancer-plagued right leg removed in September 2025, the complaint alleges that the surgical team accidentally amputated her healthy left leg.

‘Wrong limb amputation should never happen,’ Layne said in a statement regarding the lawsuit.

‘There is simply no excuse. Complete and total failure by multiple medical professionals caused this catastrophe,’ said Layne.

‘Despite several opportunities to identify the mistake and stop the procedure, the surgical team somehow never noticed they were operating on the wrong leg.’

‘Now every day for the rest of her life, Sharon Jacks must live with the consequences of those failures,’ he added, according to Fox 8.

The lawsuit claims that Jacks ‘has suffered severe physical injury, permanent disability, pain and suffering, emotional distress, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, medical expenses and other damages.’

According to Layne, the surgeon marked the correct leg pre-surgery.

The mark was still on the correct leg after the wrong leg had been removed.

The lawsuit names several co-defendants, including Selby General Hospital, Marietta Memorial Hospital, Marietta Area Health Care Inc., Marietta Health Care Physicians Inc. and First Settlement Orthopedics Inc., alongside multiple individual physicians.

Selby General Hospital gave a statement to WBNS stating: ‘We are saddened by what occurred, and our team continues to keep this patient and their family in our prayers.’

‘Our expected operating room procedures were not followed.’

They also claim the medical professionals involved are ‘no longer in their positions,’ but did not expand on this, according to Cleveland.com.

The Daily Mail has contacted Selby General Hospital for further comment and has not received a response yet.

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