DALLAS (AP) _ A nonprofit organization that oversees health care providers says it is investigating the case of a woman whose leg was amputated when her knee replacement surgery was mishandled.
A spokeswoman for the Joint Commission told The Dallas Morning News that the group is reviewing the operation at Parkland Memorial Hospital in which an unlicensed medical student didn’t recognize symptoms of a major surgical injury.
A report in the newspaper last month cited medical records showing that the attending physician personally supervised one of the woman’s 23 follow-up surgeries when his calendar said he was vacationing in Africa.
The commission oversees more than 18,000 U.S. health care providers. Its accreditation allows hospitals to receive payments from Medicare and Medicaid.
Parkland is the primary teaching hospital for UT Southwestern Medical Center residents.
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