Health and Disability Commissioner, Morag McDowell found the surgeon should have communicated with their patient more effectively. Photo / HDC
Health and Disability Commissioner, Morag McDowell found the surgeon should have communicated with their patient more effectively. Photo / HDC
A woman whose belly button was removed during complications in surgery only found out a week later that it was missing when she took her bandages off.
The woman has now complained to the Health and Disability Commissioner about the fact she was told her umbilicus had been removed immediately after the surgery while she was still groggy from anaesthesia and drowsy from being given morphine.
She told her doctor she was horrified to find out she had no belly button, and was devastated about the way her body looked.
"To assume that I'd be okay with not being told about my navel being removed is totally wrong in my opinion," the woman said in her complaint.
"I totally understand that the surgeon had to make a decision there and then to remove my navel but I was never told post-surgery what had happened."
The woman, who has name suppression, went in for hernia surgery in 2019. While she was under the knife the surgeon made the call that her belly button needed to be removed.
The woman's belly button had to be removed during complications in surgery. Photo / 123rf
The woman says she wasn't advised before the surgery that this was a potential complication and that afterwards she was too-groggy to even recall being told she no longer had a navel.
"I was never advised or warned pre-surgery that I could end up without a navel and would have welcomed the opportunity to discuss the options with my family. Instead, that decision was taken away from me," the woman said.
The woman said that a week later when she went to get her dressings removed she was "horrified" to discover her belly button was no longer there.
She said she attempted to contact the surgeon - who also has name suppression - who got back to her three weeks later after being on leave to explain the need for the removal and to refer her to a plastic surgeon to explore having an umbilical reconstruction.
"The surgeon's advice was that she could refer me to a plastic surgeon. This is something that should have been discussed post-surgery without me having to chase her," the woman said.
Health and Disability Commissioner, Morag McDowell has found a surgeon in breach of the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights for failing to effectively communicate with their patient.
McDowell didn't find any fault with the decision to remove the belly button, just in the way she communicated with the patient before and after the surgery.
McDowell said the surgeon had a responsibility to communicate to the woman that it had been necessary to deviate from the expected surgery and to remove her umbilicus, in a way that enabled her to understand, process, and retain the information.
Health and Disability Commissioner, Morag McDowell found the surgeon should have communicated with their patient more effectively. Photo / HDC
"Given it was likely the woman was still sedated and not thinking clearly immediately following her surgery, this was not the appropriate time or environment for the surgeon to undertake this conversation with her," she said in her decision released today.
Following this case, the surgeon agreed to undertake further training on communication and documentation and volunteered to develop a brochure on umbilical and incisional hernia surgery.
The surgeon has informed HDC that all issues discussed during the consent process are now documented, and post-operative ward rounds are documented by junior doctors adequately and clearly.
