Tennessee Doctor Performs Surgery On The Wrong Baby

What would you do if you found out that your healthy newborn baby was mistakenly taken by medical staff at the hospital and become a patient for surgery? This is the kind of situation that people don't normally hear or see happening. It sounds like a scene in a movie that nobody would have ever thought could happen in real life. But it did!

According to a report by Medical Daily, a doctor in Tennessee performed a frenectomy procedure on a child that was supposed to be healthy. It is a surgery to remove the tiny skin flap or frenulum underneath the human tongue. A frenulum underneath the tongue has no purpose and removing it through surgery does not cause any loss of function.

It was a mistake that clearly devastated the parents of the child, whose mother, Jennifer Melton, said that the baby did not have any issue during and after the delivery. They were not told that there was going to be a surgery to take out a part of the baby's skin because of an illness.

"Essentially they took our child who was 100 percent healthy, no issues at all, out of the nursery and cut his mouth," the mother said during the interview. "At that point I began to cry hysterically."

According to reports, it is possible that the doctors at the University Medical Center in Lebanon were supposed to perform a surgery on a newborn child who has ankyloglossia or tongue-tied, but mistakenly performed the procedure on a healthy baby boy named, Nate.

According to a report by AOL, the doctor realized that there was a mistake. He said that he mistakenly asked for the wrong infant. He said that he is clearly at fault and apologized to the family of the Melton baby.

Meanwhile, Melton's attorney, Clint Kelly, said that the family is not satisfied with the doctor's explanation and they have demanded a clearer answer regarding the situation.

"There is no excuse on operating on the wrong baby, none," the lawyer said. "We don't know if the child will have speech problems or eating problems. The concern here is this was a healthy baby that was supposed to leave the hospital, but instead was harmed by the hospital."

The hospital did not provide any more comment to the press with regard to the incident because of federal privacy regulations. There were also no reports if the Melton family will take their case to the court of law.