An Ohio woman is suing Selby General Hospital after surgeons allegedly amputated her left leg instead of the cancerous right leg they were meant to remove, leaving her a double amputee.
Sharon Jacks, 74, had been due to undergo a below-the-knee amputation at the hospital in Marietta on 19 September 2025. Her lawsuit alleges that the surgical team removed her left leg, despite the right leg having been identified as the operative site.
Doctors later amputated Jacks’ right leg at another Ohio hospital, about four months after the first operation. The lawsuit, filed this month in Washington County Common Pleas Court, says she and her husband, Dannie, are seeking compensation and punitive damages.
The complaint names Selby General Hospital and members of the medical and surgical teams as defendants. It accuses them of gross negligence, battery and reckless conduct, alleging a “complete failure of basic safety procedures”.
Jacks’ lawyer, Brad Layne, said medical records indicated that the surgeon had marked the correct leg before the operation, but that the mark remained on the right leg after the left had been removed.
The complaint also states that two surgical “time-outs” were carried out before the procedure. Such checks are intended to confirm the patient’s identity, the planned operation and the correct surgical site before an incision is made.
“She went into surgery, and when she woke up, the wrong leg had been taken off,” Mr Layne told US broadcasters. “It defies explanation, obviously.”
Jacks, an Army veteran, is now facing the practical consequences of having both legs amputated below the knee. Her lawyer said her husband had left his job to care for her, while she required help with tasks including transferring herself between a wheelchair and her bed.
Selby General Hospital has confirmed that an “adverse surgical event” took place in September 2025. In a statement, it said an internal review found the incident was avoidable and that expected operating-room procedures had not been followed.
The hospital said those involved were held accountable and were no longer in their positions. It added that surgical staff had undergone mandatory retraining and that further measures had been introduced following reviews by the hospital system, the Mayo Clinic and the Ohio Department of Health.
“We are saddened by what occurred, and our team continues to keep this patient and their family in our prayers,” the hospital said.
The lawsuit describes wrong-site surgery as a serious and preventable medical error sometimes referred to in healthcare as a “never event”. It seeks damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering, emotional distress, permanent impairment and loss of enjoyment of life.
