Doctor Amputates Again--Wrongly

Florida has suspended the license of a doctor who amputated a woman’s toe without consent, five months after he removed the wrong leg of another patient.

Dr. Rolando Sanchez “presents an immediate and serious danger to the health, safety and welfare of the public,” said an emergency order from the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

Sanchez, of Tampa, gained notoriety in February because of the case of patient Willie King.

King, 51, who suffered a diabetes-related circulatory disease, was to have his right leg cut off between the knee and ankle at University Community Hospital in Tampa. But the left lower leg was removed instead after a series of paperwork mistakes.

King, whose right lower leg was later amputated at a different hospital, got a settlement of $900,000 from University Community Hospital and $250,000 from Sanchez.

The second case cited in the emergency suspension issued Friday involved a patient at Town and Country Hospital who consented last week to have dead tissue removed from her right foot in a surgical procedure known as debridement. The patient’s name wasn’t made public.

Sanchez amputated the patient’s toe but later denied doing so to a nursing supervisor, “stating that it had fallen off,” the emergency order states.