Mix-up leads to surgical procedure on wrong baby

The happiness of their son's birth was marred for
a couple in Tennessee after they learned doctors
mixed up their baby with another and mistakenly
performed a surgical procedure on their healthy
newborn.
"The baby was perfect, healthy and beautiful,"
new mom Jennifer Melton told CBS Nashville
affiliate WTVF. Little Nate was delivered at
University Medical Center in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Not long after the birth, her newborn went for
what Melton thought would be a routine physical.
A couple of hours later, he was brought back.
"At that point the nurse started to mention
the procedure they had done that they had
clipped his tongue," said Melton.
Somehow, a doctor without the parents' signed
consent performed a surgical procedure on Nate
that apparently was meant for another child.
"Essentially they took our child who was
healthy from the room and cut his mouth,"
said Melton. "At that point I began to cry
hysterically."
"There is no excuse on operating on the
wrong baby, none," said Melton's attorney,
Clint Kelly.
Kelly said the doctor performed a frenulectomy,
which involves cutting a flap of skin from under
the child's tongue. The procedure is a treatment
for infants born with a condition that restricts the
tongue's range of motion. But little Nate's tongue
was normal.
"It's recklessness. There's no excuse for cutting
on a healthy child. There's no excuse for mixing
up babies at a hospital," said Kelly.
The doctor didn't try to make any excuses. In a
progress report from the hospital he wrote: "... I
had asked for the wrong infant. I had likely
performed the procedure on an infant different
than the one I intended to ... and I admitted my
mistake and apologized."
"They were sorry they made a mistake,"
said Melton. But she is still concerned
about the long-term impact it could have on
her child.
"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," said Kelly.
University Medical Center declined to comment
specifically on what happened for this story,
citing federal privacy regulations.