posted February 19, 2007 07:11 PM              

Surgeons' lame excuse

Surgeons trying to correct the limp of a five-year-old boy in China has apologised after lengthening the wrong leg.

They say the mistake was down to the boy being anaesthetised on his back but then operated on while lying on his stomach.

Xiangya Second Hospital in Changsha city operated on Miao Mingming whose right leg is shorter than his left.

"The doctor suggested surgery to extend the withered tendon, and we agreed. But when Mingming came out of the operating room, I found his left leg was in the cast," complained his father.

The hospital has admitted its mistake and promised to take full responsibility, reports Xinhua News.

Chief doctor Zhao said: "I am very sorry about what happened. Before the surgery, the patient was lying on his back and received full anaesthesia, and then the surgery was done with the patient lying on his stomach."

Now Mingming has to undergo two more operations, one to extend the right leg, the other to shorten the extended left leg.