Oakwood Hospital sued over brain surgery

Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

Dearborn -- The family of a Flat Rock woman has sued Oakwood Hospital and two of its doctors for allegedly making the mistake of performing brain surgery on the wrong side of her head.

Deborah Blankenship, 49, died on Dec. 8, 2008, 16 months after suffering an aneurysm that caused bleeding on the left side of her brain. She was under the care of neurosurgeon Dr. Robert R. Johnson and radiologist Dr. Hasnain Haider-Shah.

Precious minutes were lost in mistaken surgery by Johnson on the right side of her brain before a second surgery was attempted on the left side, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Wayne County Circuit Court. The delay left Blankenship with severe brain damage through the final months of her life, the suit claimed.

There is no record with the state of Michigan of any disciplinary action taken against either doctor.

"Wrong site operations should never occur," said Brian McKeen, a lawyer who represents Blankenship's daughter Shanna Winkles of Romulus. "There are so many checks and balances and protocols that doctors and hospitals are responsible to adhere to, that it is hard to imagine how this could have happened."

There was no immediate response to calls for comment from Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center. Johnson and Haider-Shah could not be reached for comment.

According to court documents, Blankenship arrived at the hospital's emergency room on Aug. 7, 2007, with a severe headache. Her problem was diagnosed as an acute leak from an artery in her brain. Haider-Shah located the site of the leak inside the woman's head but was unable to block the bleeding using a catheter to push tiny platinum coils through an artery to the site of the leak, according to the suit.

Blankenship was rushed into a second operating room where Johnson performed an emergency craniotomy that cuts open the patient's skull to directly reach the site of the aneurysm. It wasn't until after Johnson opened the right side of Blankenship's head that Haider-Shah was called into the operating room and asked which side the aneurysm was on, according to the lawsuit.