Preventing and controlling the spread of infectious diseases is one of the arguments for strong government institutions. But this argument is undermined if governments address emerging epidemic diseases in a ham-handed way. Concerns over responsibility and reputation all too often take precedence over the real task of saving human lives.

10MERS In South Korea

After the MERS epidemic began in South Korea in 2015, the Park Geun-hye government was accused of mishandling the crisis and possibly making it worse. Experts heavily criticized the official lack of transparency and the practice of shuttling suspected infectees between hospitals before putting them in quarantine, putting medical staff and the wider public at greater risk. Some criticized the government’s failure to create a centralized facility to concentrate care for infected patients, which would be more efficient and less likely to cause further spread of the disease.

Many were angered by the government’s refusal to name the hospitals treating those affected by the disease, greatly increasing public fears and Internet rumors. This was allegedly done to help hospitals avoid losses in revenue if the public was aware they were treating MERS patients. Instead, people on the Internet made up their own lists, and police arrested several people for falsely identifying specific hospitals as MERS treatment centers.

Firebrand journalist Se-Woong Koo believes the mishandling of MERS is representative of a political system perceived by the public as “a crony capitalist state run by corrupt elites who have monopolized power and the national economy, fostering government incompetence and popular distrust of the state.”

9SARS In China

Mao Zedong once bade “Farewell to the God of Plagues,” but the SARS epidemic in China highlighted serious problems with the way the government handles epidemics. Fears that the outbreak would create a bad image for China led to the government restricting information, which led quickly to public anxiety and rumors. Information controls within the official hierarchy itself caused critical delays.

A key report by a team of experts sent to Guangdong by the Ministry of Health early in the crisis was marked top secret, so it took three days to find a provincial health official with the authorization to read it. After it was finally read, the provincial government released a bulletin of information about the disease to hospitals, but this was read by few because many medical personnel were on vacation for Chinese New Year. Meanwhile, Chinese law prevented any public release of information about the disease, classified as state secrets unless “announced by the Ministry of Health or organs authorized by the Ministry.”

As the epidemic was spreading, Public Health Minister Zhang Wenkang still claimed, “China is a safe place to work and live, including to travel.” The WHO complained of government interference in efforts to control the disease, including preventing Taiwan and the WHO from having direct contact as China claims sovereignty over the country.

As the government played down reports of the disease and doctored statistics, wild rumors spread on the Internet. Some believed the outbreak was bird flu or anthrax. A circular appeared in local media outlining preventative measures, such as improving ventilation, using vinegar fumes to disinfect the air, and frequently washing hands.

The epidemic and botched response had a silver lining of sorts. It underscores the limitations of the Chinese system of “fragmented authoritarianism,” particularly when comparing the Chinese response to the more successful responses in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

8Cholera In Zimbabwe

As political tensions between the ruling ZANU-PF and opposition MDC were leading to violence in the streets, an outbreak of cholera erupted in Zimbabwe in 2008. The government initially tried to downplay the spread of the disease, which Robert Mugabe claimed was a part of a Western plot to invade the country and topple his government in a rambling speech where he called US President Bush and UK Prime Minister Brown “crooks . . . guilty of deliberate lies to commit acts of aggression.”

Hours after South Africa declared the border zone with Zimbabwe a disaster area, Mugabe announced the disease was under control, a claim denied by world health officials who complained the president had prevented a team of French specialists from landing in the country. But the country was soon asking for aid, as its beleaguered and declined healthcare industry simply could not cope. Even health minister David Parirenyatwa eventually admitted, “Our central hospitals are literally not functioning.”

In 2013, it was revealed that attempts to cover up the spread of the disease extended to the United Nations, as country chief Agostinho Zacarias had fired Georges Tadonki, the head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Zimbabwe. Zacarias was closely tied to Mugabe, and Tadonki’s efforts to control the spread of the disease were deemed politically unacceptable to the government.

In a scathing report, a UN tribunal judge later ruled that “the political agenda that RC/HC Zacarias was engaged in with the Government of Zimbabwe far outweighed any humanitarian concerns that (Tadonki’s office) may have had.” In the end, the disease killed more than 4,000 people.

7Nipah Virus In Malaysia

An outbreak of the newly emergent paramyxovirus Nipah in the state of Perak, Malaysia, in September 1998 was initially assumed by the government to be an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis, which is endemic in Malaysia, spread by mosquito, and primarily affects children. The Nipah virus, by contrast, caused severe febrile encephalitis among pig farmers. It had been spread from flying foxes to pigs to humans through bat excretions landing in pig swill, possibly due to the migration of fruit bats to cultivated orchards due to fruiting failure in forests caused by El Nino and human burning efforts.

The Malaysian government’s initial attempts to control what it thought was Japanese encephalitis through fogging and mass vaccination had no effect on the spread of the disease. When cases were reported in abattoirs in Singapore in March 1999, the country banned the import of Malaysian pigs and controlled their small outbreak.

The outbreak of the disease in Malaysia was finally controlled with the culling of over one million pigs, while people were advised to conduct preventative measures such as using protection like masks, hand-washing after handling infected animals and pigsties, and washing down cages and vehicles for transporting animals with soap and water.

The disease wreaked havoc on the billion-dollar Malaysian pig industry, and a group of pig farmers tried to sue the government for their mishandling of the case. The farmers were angry to have engaged in fruitless efforts to control the misidentified virus, which led to more deaths and the destruction of many livelihoods.

6Plague In India

When an outbreak of the plague erupted in the city of Surat in the western Indian state of Gujarat, the response of the government was confused at best. There were mixed signals, with one government press release confirming the plague, while the chief minister of Gujarat denied it and said it must be pneumonia. The mixed signals led to panic among the population.

People wore masks and covered their faces with handkerchiefs in affected areas (which was ineffective at preventing infection), and in larger cities like Mumbai and New Delhi, many schools and public entertainment places were closed as residents chose to stay indoors. People in the neighboring state of Rajasthan killed rats to prevent the spread of the disease (which may have caused affected fleas to jump to new human hosts, spreading the plague further).

The correct diagnosis of the disease was limited by the medical equipment available, and the government tried to initially cover up the outbreak. It would take heavy pressure from nearby trade partners such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to compel them to allow the World Health Organization to render assistance.

Even then, some in the WHO complained of Indian government delays and pointless squabbling over sharing of samples. The WHO intervention was controversial in the national press, and one member of the WHO team complained that the government was encouraging “science by the press.” Some refused to admit the plague originated in India, and rumors spread of genetically engineered bioweapons from hostile South Asian neighbors.

5AIDS In The United States

Some lay the blame for the 1980s AIDS epidemic in the United States squarely with President Ronald Reagan. When the first cases emerged in 1981, it became clear to health authorities that a real crisis situation was developing. But a slow response from the federal government led to delays in vital HIV/AIDS research due to lack of funding and little to no efforts made to develop an outreach program to control or prevent infection.

This is very likely because the initial victims were gay men, who suffered a great deal of hostile attention as the disease spread. Reverend Jerry Falwell said, “AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals,” while Reagan’s communications director Pat Buchanan called the epidemic “nature’s revenge on gay men.”

It took until 1987 before Reagan publicly spoke about the AIDS epidemic, after 59,572 AIDS cases had been reported and 27,909 people had died. In the meantime, discrimination against homosexuals prevented serious work being done. Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina amended a federal appropriations bill to prohibit AIDS education programs that “encourage or promote homosexual activity,” to prevent gay men from being taught how to have safe sex.

Some have argued Reagan’s political decisions were rarely influenced by religion and that his silence and inaction were calculated to avoid offending his base, largely made up of conservative Christians who saw the disease as a just punishment for sexual deviants and drug abusers. The cynicism and ignorance ultimately cost the lives of tens of thousands of people.

4BSE In Britain

The epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, began with the death of a single cow in West Sussex. While it first appeared in the 1970s, it had largely gone unnoticed but would eventually jump to humans. Controlling the outbreak involved the culling of millions of livestock, and the disease killed 176 British and 50 others around the world. The outbreak caused severe doubts in the reliability and honesty of UK governments in handling such outbreaks.

At first, the government denied any link between BSE and the human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Agriculture Minister John Gummer criticized schools that had taken beef products from their menus over the rising fears. At a political event in 1990, he tried to prove properly cooked British beef safe by feeding a hamburger to his daughter. She refused, so he took a bite himself and called it “absolutely delicious.”

It took until 1996, after several human cases had already been reported, before the government was willing to admit the danger posed by BSE. A 2000 report lauded government efforts to control the outbreak but admitted denialism and delays hampering the process. Poor communication and foot-dragging by civil servants, bureaucratic hurdles, and poor enforcement also made things worse. One key failure was the 1987 decision not to ban mechanically recovered meat from carcasses, considered risky, which then entered burgers and meat pies.

3Spanish Flu In Samoa

In 1918, Samoa was under the administration of New Zealand, and many blame administrator Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Logan for an outbreak of Spanish flu that killed 22 percent of the population.

The disease was brought aboard New Zealand passenger and cargo ship Talune arriving at Apia from Auckland on November 7, 1918. The ship had been quarantined when making a stopover in Fiji, but no precautions were made in Samoa. Sick passengers disembarked, and the disease was soon spreading throughout the main island of Upolu and to the neighboring island of Savai’i, overwhelming Samoa’s rudimentary medical facilities.

The governor of American Samoa offered assistance, as he had a staff of medical officers and assistants at the ready having recently controlled their own outbreak. Logan ignored the message, later claiming he assumed it was referring to his wife. He also broke off radio communication with the American Samoan capital of Pago Pago, apparently in revenge for a policy of quarantining Western Samoan mail. Samoa therefore received no medical assistance until an Australian ship arrived carrying four doctors and 20 medical orderlies.

Logan was inexperienced with administration and believed he needed to wait for instructions from Wellington before doing anything, so little was done to curb the epidemic. Plantation interests opposed a quarantine, and so much of the population was soon sick that there were food shortages. Many became more sick as they were weak from a lack of food.

A 1947 United Nations report would call it “one of the most disastrous epidemics recorded anywhere in the world during the present century, so far as the proportion of deaths to the population is concerned.” Logan left Samoa in early 1919, writing of the crisis in a report: “[It is] temporary and, like children, [the Samoans] will get over it provided they are handled with care . . . They will later on remember all that has been done for them in the previous four years.”

2Meningitis In Zambia

After an outbreak of meningococcal meningitis at Kabompo Secondary School in North-Western Province, Zambia, in June 2015, three students died and another three were admitted into the hospital. The slow reaction by the government to spread accurate information led to hysteria, as some students claimed the disease was caused by witchcraft. In a riot involving students and members of the local community on July 4, school property was damaged, and parents withdrew their children, who were claiming the school needed to be “cleansed.”

Conflicting statements from the Ministries of Health and Education soon suggested miscommunication was a factor in the chaos. On July 8, Health Minister Joseph Kasonde told reporters the school had been closed for two weeks, but Ministry of Education spokesperson Hillary Chipango said the school hadn’t been closed, merely that students were refusing to attend.

Critics of the government have blamed the lack of communication and coordination between the Ministries for the lack of accurate information about the disease, which can be treated with antibiotics and easily prevented. The information could have helped to prevent the spread of witchcraft rumors.

1AIDS In South Africa

South Africa had spent 15 years steadily fighting the spread of HIV, until the election of Thabo Mbeki. The new president had fallen under the sway of a group of scientific rebels led by Berkeley’s Peter Duesberg who deny that AIDS is caused by the AIDS virus and instead blame pathogenic factors such as drug use, promiscuous homosexual activity, blood transfusions, parasitic infections, and malnutrition.

Though their claims went against the vast weight of scientific evidence, Mbeki was convinced. Part of it may have been the cost of drug treatments, and AIDS denialism put pressure on international drug makers to lower their prices to be more affordable to ordinary Africans. Part of it was due to him believing the claims HIV was sexually transmitted was only a representation of traditional racist ideas about Africans being promiscuous.

The disease wasn’t caused by a virus, he believed, but general ill health and malnutrition. The solution wasn’t simply buying medicine from the West but improving the African standard of living.

Mbeki appointed a group of scientists who declared there were alternative treatments to combat AIDS. Until late 2003, the Ministry of Health refused to provide treatment to HIV-infected individuals. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang declared in 2006 that AIDS could be cured by eating healthy foods like olive oil, beetroot, lemon, and garlic. She even presented a South African government display of fruits and vegetables at a Toronto AIDS conference. The following year, deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was dismissed, ostensibly for corruption but in reality likely due to her outspoken views on the relationship between HIV and AIDS.

South Africa ended its official culture of denialism with the election of Jacob Zuma in 2009. A Harvard study found that Mbeki’s belief in quack science likely led to the deaths of over 300,000 people.

David Tormsen is your own personal patient zero. Email him at [email protected].

Circumcision is one of the most common and historic surgical procedures in the world, dating as far back as ancient Egypt. Like any medical procedure, there can be serious risks involved which are often overlooked given the innumerable rate of success. But when these errors do occur, the results are not only physically devastating, but psychologically and emotionally traumatizing as well. Sometimes, people’s lives are damaged forever . . . if they’re lucky enough to survive.

SEE ALSO: 10 Hilarious But False Theories About The Penis

10A Man’s Worst Nightmare

It’s not exactly common for an adult to undergo an elective circumcision. However, a 56-year-old Alabama man named Johnny Lee Banks Jr. decided to go ahead and do it. After the procedure, Bank’s awoke and, to his surprise, he was missing his penis. Banks and his wife filed a lawsuit claiming that Banks was in extreme pain, and his wife claimed to be suffering as well due to a “loss of consortium.”

Eventually, the lawsuit was thrown out by the judge, who claimed that Banks and his wife lacked sufficient details pertaining to the case—such as the specific time and date of the operation. The hospital’s lawyer claimed that Banks’s statements were completely false and that he was simply smearing the name of the hospital. However, the judge allowed Banks 30 days to gather his documents and file an amendment lawsuit. Banks, who has a multitude of health problems—including diabetes, which has caused him to lose his two legs due to amputation—left the courthouse in a wheelchair crying.

9Ryan Heydari

In January 2013, 22-day-old Ryan Heydari’s parents brought their smiling infant son into an Ontario hospital for a circumcision. It was a surgical procedure which the parents didn’t originally intend to have for their child, but they’d been persuaded by a family physician. Besides, the procedure was highly supported by the Canadian Pediatric Society. Finally, the parents agreed. They should have stuck with their initial instincts.

After the procedure, the doctor who had performed the circumcision told the parents that there was no bleeding and that the procedure was “uneventful.” However, the father claimed that his son was in fact bleeding and that it only got worse over time. Sadly, baby Ryan lost 40 percent of his blood and went into hypovolemic shock, ultimately bleeding to death. In the end, the pediatrician who’d performed the circumcision was urged by the hospital to be “mindful” next time, and the emergency room physician who’d treated Ryan was merely cautioned. The parents filed a formal complaint, which was ultimately thrown out without shedding any light on what went wrong.

8‘The Thing Was Like Gone’

In August 2013, Maggie Rhodes took her three-month-old son, Ashton, to a low-cost local clinic to get him circumcised. She immediately knew something was horribly wrong when she heard her son’s cries of pain, which she described as “life and death screams.” She immediately ran into the room to see her son’s penis terribly disfigured. From what she had seen, Rhodes stated that the doctor had cut upward on the penis instead of around the head of the penis. In her own words, “the thing was like gone.”

Rhodes ended up filing a lawsuit against Christ Community Health Services (CCHS), where the procedure took place. Although the extent of the damage is not entirely known, Rhodes’s legal representation contacted CCHS in order to set up a meeting with representatives from the clinic. They demanded documentation of credentials from the clinics staff, nurses, and doctors, but Christ Community Health Services refused to comply.

7Unsightly

In December 2008, Keka and Steven Lorenzana of Coral Gables, Florida, took their infant son to South Miami Hospital. There, the infant underwent a circumcision by OB/GYN physician Dr. Molina. Three years later, the Lorenzanas filed a lawsuit against the doctor. The suit claimed that Dr. Molina had left too much foreskin on the ventral side of the penis. The ventral side is the skin on the bottom shaft of the penis closest to the urethra.

The Lorenzanas were initially told by pediatricians that their son would eventually “grow into it.” The parents were outraged. They said that their son was permanently scarred and that the whole thing was “unsightly.” The Lorenzanas’ lawyer, David Llewellyn, primarily focused on the emotional and psychological scarring it will have on the boy as he matures.

6Two Instead Of One

A four-year-old boy in Texas underwent an elective circumcision due to the persuasion of a pediatrician. The doctor told the parents that the procedure was necessary, since their son had a tight and redundant foreskin. After the circumcision, the doctor told the parents that their son’s surgery was successful, although there was minor bleeding. However, after a nurse checked on the child, the bleeding had intensified, and he was brought into the operating room once again.

After the second round, the child was discharged and sent home. Days later, he was in intense pain and—to his parents’ shock—urinating out of two holes. In the days following, the pain intensified, causing the child to scream and cry every time he had to urinate. The child also had to urinate sitting down to manage the two different streams of urine. His pain was apparently so bad that he begged for his penis to be cut off.

When the child began urinating blood, his parents brought him to another physician, where the boy was diagnosed with a fistula (hole) in his penis due to over-cauterization during the initial procedure. The parents filed suit against the doctor who performed the procedure, and the boy is expected to undergo numerous operations in order to correct the damage.

5The Windy City Blues

In September 2015, a Chicago woman by the name of Miriam Rodriguez gave birth to a son. At the hospital, her son underwent a circumcision, and not long after, she filed a lawsuit against the hospital as well as the doctors. She claimed that the physicians involved in the procedure had improperly circumcised her son and mutilated the boy’s penis. To be specific, Rodriguez claimed that her son, Angel, sustained disfigurement, tissue loss, and a loss of sensation.

The lawsuit is seeking reimbursement of lost wages, attorney fees, medical costs for future surgical procedures, and more than $50,000 in punitive damages. Rodriguez also claimed in the suit that since the operation, she has suffered “mental pain and anguish and loss of a normal life.” It is not clear as of now where the lawsuit will go or the severity of damage the infant endured.

4‘We’ll Forget You Never’

Brayden Tyler Frazier was just 11 days old when he died after undergoing a circumcision two days prior. The events that caused the actual death were not initially clear; however, the infant was diagnosed as a hemophiliac and began hemorrhaging uncontrollably following the procedure. Hemophilia is a condition in which one’s blood does not clot normally, thus causing one to bleed more excessively and for a longer span of time than normal.

The doctors working on the child claim that they did everything they could to stop the bleeding by providing plasma, platelets, and coagulants, but to no avail. Following the hemorrhaging, Brayden began having liver and kidney failure as well as uncontrollable seizures. Eleven-day-old Brayden Tyler Frazier’s obituary ends with the unbearably heart-wrenching words, “We’ll forget you never, the child we had but never had and yet will have forever.”

3Terrel Hall

One week after Melanie Hall gave birth to her son, Terrel, she brought him to a doctor in Los Angeles to be circumcised. Moments after her son was taken into a back room for the procedure, she heard screams of terror. Horrified, she rushed in from the waiting room and found her son with the tip of his penis cut off.

According to reports, the boy lost 85 percent of the top of his penis. The mother filed a lawsuit against the company that manufactured the medical clamp used in the procedure, which she claims was faulty and botched her son’s circumcision. The plaintiff’s court filings stated that the child will need yearly visits to a pediatric urologist as well as possible future surgeries, not to mention psychiatric care for the trauma Terrel endured. Eight years later, a judge ruled in Melanie Hall’s favor, awarding her $4.7 million, $1 million of that going to her legal fees.

2The Ritual

In September 2012, a Brooklyn infant died after contracting the herpes simplex virus type 1 following an Orthodox Jewish circumcision ritual called metzitzah b’peh. In this ritual, which takes place under the ceremony known as the bris, the rabbi circumcises the infant and then places his mouth on the penis in order to draw blood away from the incision.

Apparently, this ritual takes place in order to cleanse the cut. In this case, the opposite happened. According to the chair of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University, Dr. William Schaffner, herpes in children is almost always fatal given the fact that infants do not have immunity to such a serious virus, unlike adults who can sometimes carry the virus without any symptoms. In this case, the virus most likely entered the child’s bloodstream via saliva contact with the incision, ultimately traveling to the infant’s brain and causing inflammation and brain damage.

1David Reimer

Perhaps the most haunting story on this list is that of Bruce Reimer. In 1966, when Bruce was seven months old, he was taken to get a circumcision. The doctor, who did not routinely perform the procedure, chose to use an electric cauterizing instrument with a sharp cutting needle to remove the foreskin. However, the operation was botched and Reimer’s parents were told there was no hope for reconstructive surgery. Under the advice of psychologist John Money, the Reimers chose to raise their son as a girl, using further surgeries to turn his butchered genitalia into a vagina in addition to hormone treatment. Bruce eventually turned into “Brenda,” although he quickly rejected his new identity, once tearing off a dress his mother made for him as a young child.

Bruce’s refusal to identify as a girl occurred throughout his childhood, and when he found out his true past in his teen years—which his parents had kept secret from him—he quit his hormone treatments and took up life as a man. He changed his name to David, married, and became a stepfather to three children. In 2002, David’s brother committed suicide. More bad luck only followed. He struggled with financial difficulties after losing his job, and his wife filed for divorce. In 2004, David committed suicide. He was 38 years old.

Adam is just a hubcap trying to hold on in the fast lane.

For many, there are few things that can be as frightening as the moments leading up to surgery. In a perfect world, we’d expect that anxiety to subside, given the years of education and skill that surgeons have acquired. Patients should be able to wholeheartedly place their lives in their doctor’s hands. Unfortunately, surgical blunders, also known as “never events,” occur as often as 80 times a week, according to the American Medical News. The following 10 cases are perhaps some of the unluckiest individuals to ever go under the knife.

10 A Man’s Worst Nightmare

In November 1999, 67-year-old Hurshell Ralls underwent surgery at the Clinics of North Texas in Wichita Falls after a biopsy determined that he had bladder cancer. The operation consisted of removing Ralls’s bladder. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be the only organ removed during the procedure. When Ralls awoke following the operation, to his horror, he found that his penis and testicles were gone.

Clearly, Ralls wasn’t consulted nor did he give permission for the amputation. The surgeons who performed the operation claimed that while removing Ralls’s bladder, they determined that the cancer had spread to his penis. However, they did not confirm their educated guess by taking tissue samples, stating that they felt that to do so wouldn’t be “worthwhile,” given their medical judgment. When a Dallas doctor examined cell slides of Ralls’s penis, he found that Ralls did not have penile cancer at all. Reconstructive surgery was out of the question, as not enough tissue remained.

The surgeons were never disciplined nor did they experience any license interruptions. Ralls decided to file a lawsuit against the doctors as well as the clinic. In the end, he settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Regardless, no monetary resolution could never replace what was taken from Ralls.

9 Wrong Infant

In 2016, Jennifer Melton gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Nate, who was delivered at the University Medical Center in Lebanon, Tennessee, near Nashville. Following the delivery, Nate was taken to another room for what his mother believed to be a routine checkup. A short time later, a nurse entered Jennifer’s room and explained that Nate was accidentally mistaken for another child and had undergone an unnecessary operation. The doctor had performed a frenulectomy, in which the flap of skin under the tongue is clipped. Such procedures are often performed when the skin is too tight, which can cause feeding and speech problems down the road, a condition often referred to as “tongue-tie.”

The physician who performed the procedure admitted his error, claiming that he had mistakenly asked for the wrong child, and apologized to the family. The physician then went on to tell Jennifer how Nate “barely cried” during the procedure and that she should not worry. The Meltons stated that they intend to sue the hospital for unspecified damages once the infant is assigned a Social Security number. Nate’s future, in terms of complications resulting from the procedure, is uncertain.

8 Wrong Limb

In 1995, 52-year-old Willie King underwent surgery to amputate his diseased leg at the University Community Hospital in Tampa, Florida. As Dr. Ronaldo R. Sanchez was cutting through King’s tissue, the nurse in the operating room, who was reviewing King’s file, began to shake and cry. That was when Dr. Sanchez realized that he was amputating the wrong leg. Unfortunately, by that point, he determined that the damage had already been done and that “there was no turning back.”

Dr. Sanchez stated that the condition of King’s legs, which he determined were both diseased, as well as error by other hospital personnel led him to believe that he was amputating the correct limb. In addition, he said that by the time he had entered the operating room, the incorrect leg had already been sterilized and draped for surgery. Prior to this mishap, another of Dr. Sanchez’s patients claimed that the surgeon amputated her toe without permission during a procedure to remove diseased tissue from her foot.

In the end, Dr. Sanchez was fined $10,000 and had his medical license suspended for 140 days.

7 Four Years Of Pain

In 2007, 56-year-old Carol Critchfield underwent a standard hysterectomy and bladder-support surgery at the Simi Valley Hospital in California. Three days after the operation, Critchfield returned to the hospital complaining of intense abdominal pain. The physicians took an X-ray. Critchfield was told that the pain was due to severe constipation, determined that her condition wasn’t critical, and sent her home.

In 2008, while Critchfield was at work, she began to sweat, experienced blurry vision, and ultimately fainted. She was brought to the hospital, where she was told that she had a gastrointestinal issue of some sort and was informed not to eat any more spicy food. Once again, she was sent home. Her symptoms continued over the following years.

In 2011, she began to experience vaginal bleeding, which doctors concluded was from an ovarian cyst. She underwent surgery to remove her ovaries, at which point her surgeon discovered a large mass. It turned out that during her original operation in 2007, the surgeons had left a sponge inside of her abdomen, which ultimately became encased in scar tissue. This led to the removal of a large amount of Critchfield’s intestines after four long years of obstruction.

Critchfield went on to sue the Simi Valley Hospital as well as five physicians associated with it. She reached a settlement in 2014 for an undisclosed amount.

6 Wrong Kidney

In 2013, a 76-year-old man on dialysis underwent surgery to remove a failing kidney, only to find that the surgeon had removed the wrong one. The horrific and life-threatening error occurred in New York at Mount Sinai Medical Center, one of the most prestigious teaching hospitals in the United States. The hospital refused to release the names of both the surgeon involved and the patient. Hospital security prevented news reporters from filming outside of the hospital as well, perhaps to save face for their “prestigious” and “glorified” medical and academic institution.

Officials at Mount Sinai said that part of the reason for why the error occurred was due to the fact that the patient had “two bad kidneys.” Be that as it may, the surgeon involved was eventually fired, even though the patient who he’d operated on came to his defense. The patient underwent surgery once again to correct the error, replacing his failing kidney with the correct one.

5 Neurosurgery

In 2013, 53-year-old Regina Turner was supposed to undergo an operation on the left side of her brain at St. Clare Health Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The operation entailed a craniotomy (surgical removal of part of the skull in order to access the brain), which the surgeon performed. Unfortunately, it was done to the wrong side of Turner’s head. Once the surgeon, Dr. Armond Levy realized his error, Turner was sutured up, and the correct operation was performed six days later, though the damage had already been done.

Turner was left with a severe speech impediment and required around-the-clock care. She filed a lawsuit against the hospital and Dr. Levy for negligence and carelessness. The following year, Turner settled out of court with the hospital for an undisclosed amount. In the end, Dr. Levy, who no longer works for SSM Health, faced no state disciplinary action for his costly error and continues to practice medicine.

4 Wrong Patient

On November 20, 1998, 66-year-old Adesta L. Hytha was scheduled for a lumpectomy, which entailed the removal of a small tumor and surrounding tissue from her left breast. The procedure was conducted at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, by acclaimed surgeon Dr. Charles E. Cox, head of the facility’s breast cancer program. Following the lumpectomy, Hytha awoke to discover that her left breast had been removed.

Hytha and her son, Stephen, were informed by Dr. Cox that during the procedure, he had discovered additional cancer and had no choice but to remove the breast in its entirety. However, that was not the case. In reality, Hytha was mistaken for another patient who was scheduled for a mastectomy. To make matters worse, Hytha wasn’t told the truth until 10 days after the fact. Dr. Cox adamantly denied misleading her, however.

Following an internal investigation, hospital officials claimed that the error was due to several factors, including staff members who’d brought the wrong patient into the operating room as well as the fact that Dr. Cox had failed to review the patient’s chart prior to the operation. Hytha chose not to sue the hospital and instead settled the matter for an undisclosed amount. The hospital offered to reconstruct Hytha’s breast. She declined.

3 Wrong Testicle

Benjamin Houghton, a retired Air Force veteran, had been diagnosed with metastatic testicular cancer in 1989. Following his diagnosis, Houghton opted out of the surgical removal of his testicle and instead underwent chemotherapy. His treatment proved to be successful. However, over the years, his left testicle became atrophied (due to cell death), causing it to waste away. This led to much pain as well as the chance of cancer cells returning in the future.

On June 16, 2006, Houghton decided to undergo elective surgery at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center in order to remove his useless and painful left testicle. To Houghton’s shock and disbelief, the surgeon removed the right (perfectly healthy) testicle.

Understandably, Houghton, 47, and his 39-year-old wife Monica filed a lawsuit against the VA, seeking $200,000 for future health care costs as well as an undisclosed amount in damages. Aside from the mental anguish of losing his manhood and sexual drive, Houghton potentially faces numerous health complications, such as depression, weight gain, fatigue, and osteoporosis due to the loss of testosterone that his healthy testicle would have provided.

2 Wrong Eye

In 2015, Fernando Jonathan Valdez, an infant child in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, was diagnosed with advanced congenital cancer of his left eye. Following the diagnosis, the one-year-old child underwent chemotherapy, to no avail. Valdez’s left eye had to be removed. After the operation, Valdez’s parents discovered that the surgeon had incorrectly removed the boy’s healthy right eye, leaving him permanently blind with the cancerous eye still intact in its socket.

The parents reported the incident to police, and an internal investigation into the Medical Unit of High Specialty Mexican Social Security Institute was launched. In addition, the parents hired an attorney, sued the hospital for medical negligence, and made a complaint to the National Commission of Human Rights and the Medical Arbitration Commission. The surgeon who performed the botched operation was suspended and placed under investigation. Regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome, the boy will never see again.

1 Wrong Organ

In October 2011, 32-year-old Maria De Jesus underwent an appendectomy at Queen’s Hospital, outside of London. At the time of her surgery, she was 21 weeks pregnant with her fourth child. The surgeon performing the operation, Dr. Yahya Al-Abed, was a trainee who was supposed to be supervised by Dr. Babatunde Coker. Unfortunately, Dr. Coker, who was busy eating lunch at the time, stated that he was unaware that the surgery was taking place. During the operation, De Jesus began to bleed “quite heavily,” and Dr. Al-Abed removed her ovary, believing it to be her appendix.

Three weeks later, De Jesus, still suffering from appendicitis, returned to the hospital in immense pain. After discovering what had occurred, she underwent surgery once again, only to die on the operating table. Her son was delivered stillborn. Her cause of death was officially recorded as multiple organ failure due to septicemia. In other words, her blood was infected due to the untreated appendicitis.

Both surgeons were found guilty of “serious misconduct.” However, a tribunal ultimately ruled that the doctors were considered not to be a “danger to the public,” and they have since been allowed to continue practicing medicine.

Adam is just a hubcap trying to hold on in the fast lane.

Whether one stands for or against the death penalty, there is no denying it has been part of human existence throughout history. Once calculated to ensure an excruciating death before witnesses, with long suffering before blessed relief (such as crucifixion), it was later changed in many societies to be quick and merciful, at least in some cases. Often piety has served as a part of the execution, a priest participating to demonstrate human subservience to divine judgment. And often the execution has not been as incident free as the executioners’ desired.

Today, most executions are performed with at least a nod towards merciful speed and minimal suffering. Such has not always been the case. And yet, on regrettable occasions, some executions designed to be horrific for the miscreant being dispatched have somehow been botched to become even more horrific than their perpetrators intended. Here are 10 examples of executions which did not work out exactly as the executioners planned. Though in the end, the hoped for result was achieved.

10. Mary, Queen of Scots, beheading, 1587

Mary Stuart, often mistakenly believed to have been a half-sister of England’s Queen Elizabeth I, was in fact her first cousin, once removed. She was the daughter of Scotland’s King James V, and as his only surviving child, (or rather, legitimate child) claimed the title Queen of Scots. The complicated interaction between the rulers of Scotland, England, and France are far too complex to discuss here, beyond saying that her claim to the Scottish throne was disputed. So was her one time claim to the throne of England, despite both English and Scottish Catholics supporting her, to say nothing of the French. Her cousin Elizabeth, a Protestant, was not amused by Mary’s pretensions, and when Mary fled to England and threw herself on Elizabeth’s mercy, desirous of her protection, the Queen had her placed under house arrest.

Mary resided in several different castles and great houses as a prisoner of Elizabeth’s, while she and her followers involved themselves in intrigues and plots to obtain the throne. In 1586, while in the 19th year of existing as an involuntary guest of Elizabeth, Mary was convicted of treason against the Queen and sentenced to death. Elizabeth ignored pleas for mercy. Mary was scheduled to be beheaded in February, 1587, at Fotheringhay. An executioner and an assistant were selected to accomplish the deed in the Great Hall, using an axe. Of course, church officials and other high-placed personages were on hand to establish the legitimacy of the execution, as well as to ensure the salvation of Mary’s immortal soul.

While her soul may have found mercy, her corporeal being did not. The first blow of the axe struck Mary not across the neck, but in the back of her head. A second blow proved to be more accurately aimed, but it did not fully sever her head from her body. It took a third swing of the axe to complete the deed and allow the executioner to hold her head aloft for the witnesses to contemplate. After several burials and exhumations, Mary eventually was interred in Westminster Abbey, where she lies in a chapel shared with, among others, her first cousin once removed, Elizabeth I. Mary’s son later ruled as King of England and Scotland as James the VI and II.

9. William Kidd, hanging, 1701

Under his title of Captain, William Kidd is nearly synonymous with pirate. Tales of Captain Kidd’s piracy, his ruthless dealings with friends and foes, and his buried treasure, are a major vein in the lode of pirate lore. Evidence indicates he was likely not a pirate at all, but a privateer of singularly poor judgment and inept political skills. He did make a small fortune capturing ships of his sovereign’s enemies. And he made enemies of his own among royal governors and military leaders in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, and in colonial New York. Whether he buried vast hordes of loot in the latter, or anywhere else for that matter, has intrigued treasure hunters ever since. Kidd’s life and career has always presented a murky picture. Yet all agree he was executed for piracy in 1701, in London.

During the trial which preceded his execution, Kidd produced evidence in the form of warrants and letters of marque, as well as personal correspondence. The documents supported his assertions of innocence of piracy and other crimes. During the trial the evidence vanished, making conviction easier for his enemies to obtain, though they were discovered in the early 20th century. At any rate, his enemies obtained a conviction, and Kidd was sentenced to be executed by hanging at Execution Dock, London, on May 23, 1701. In the custom of the day he was allowed to purchase food and drink while spending his last days in prison, and did so extravagantly, especially the drink. When he was delivered for his execution, he was drunk.

After delivering a harangue protesting his innocence Kidd was dropped from the gallows. The rope broke, and instead of finding himself standing before his maker, Kidd groveled on the ground with the noose around his neck, likely considerably more sober. He reiterated his claims of innocence to the shocked crowd as he mounted the gallows a second time, citing divine intervention as proof of his assertions. The unabashed executioners produced a second rope and assisted Kidd to a second drop, which proved more effective. His tarred body was displayed suspended from a gibbet by the Thames, a warning to seafarers over the perils of piracy. Remnants of his body were said to be there for three years after his death.

8. Robert-Francois Damiens, dismemberment by horse, 1757

Regicide, the assassination of a monarch, has been frowned upon throughout history, with some of the more horrifying means of execution reserved for those who committed, or attempted to commit, such a horrid crime. In France up until the 18th century, the penalty of execution by dismemberment was the preferred means of dispatching regicides. Dismemberment was the forcible removal of the limbs from the living body. In the cradle of civilization which was Bourbon France, the use of horses to provide the motive force to achieve dismemberment was favored by the 18th century. Such a method was applied to Robert-Francois Damiens, a lowly servant convicted of the attempted assassination of Louis XV in 1757.

Damiens succeeded in wounding the King with a knife, which inspired His Majesty to confess his numerous extramarital affairs to his wife, Queen Marie, before he realized the injury was not serious. Serious or no, the attack led Damiens to being tried and convicted for attempting to assassinate the King, and his conviction led to his sentence of execution by dismemberment. But first the former servant was submitted to torture to ensure any co-conspirators did not escape justice. Damiens was burned with red-hot irons, the hand which struck the King was covered in molten lead, and he was liberally doused with boiling oil. He was then handed over to his executioner, who castrated him before tying each of his limbs to a horse. When started, the horses were to complete the dismemberment.

The horses’ combined strength proved insufficient to separate the assassin’s limbs from his body. While witnesses watched the application of justice the executioner used a knife to sever the tendons holding together Damiens’ tortured body. The horses were then reattached, and Damiens partially disjointed body was more readily rent asunder. The successful separation of limbs from body brought applause from the assembled witnesses. One of the witnesses who left behind an account of the proceedings was Giacomo Casanova, who wrote, “We had the courage to watch the dreadful sight for four hours…” Damiens body was burned. Some say he was still alive, though that assertion defies belief.

7. Henry Wirz, hanging, 1865

Washington DC’s Old Capitol Prison had a long and interesting history by the time of the American Civil War. Originally built as an expedient, to serve as a temporary capitol in the aftermath of the British burning of Washington in 1814, it had been a warehouse, a schoolhouse, and a boarding house before the Civil War. John C. Calhoun, former Vice President and a Senator from South Carolina, died there while in residence in 1850. In 1861 the government purchased the building to serve as a prison for captured Confederates and their sympathizers. Belle Boyd and John Singleton Mosby were both imprisoned there. In 1865 Henry Wirz, former commander of the Confederate prisoner of war camp at Andersonville, Georgia, was incarcerated in the prison.

Wirz was tried for war crimes committed during his tenure at Andersonville, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and other lesser crimes. Over the past century apologists and revisionists have claimed he was railroaded, that no witnesses identified him as committing any of the crimes for which he was accused, and that he was used as a scapegoat. Be that as it may, a military tribunal led by General Lew Wallace, a veteran of Gettysburg and the future author of Ben Hur, convicted him of the charges, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. The execution was scheduled for November 10, 1865, at Old Capitol Prison, after President Andrew Johnson did not grant clemency. About 200 witnesses were on the grounds of the prison to witness the hanging, along with over 100 Union troops as guards.

Execution by hanging required the hangman to accurately ascertain the weight of the condemned, to ensure the fall was of sufficient length to break the neck. Too long of a drop could result in decapitation, too short and the victim would slowly strangle. The latter occurred in Wirz’s case, and the 200 witnesses watched as the condemned writhed and twisted, kicking and twitching, as he was gradually choked to death. Wirz was one of just two men executed for war crimes committed during the American Civil War, though several others were executed for spying or for crimes committed as guerrillas during the conflict.

6. William Kemmler, electrocution, 1890

William Kemmler holds the distinction of being the first human formally executed using electricity. Convicted for the brutal murder of his common law wife, Kemmler was incarcerated in New York as Westinghouse and Edison’s “voltage wars” argued whether AC or DC current was the preferred method of providing electrical power to America. Edison conducted a lengthy and well-hyped campaign to demonstrate the dangers of AC current, as well as a coincident campaign demonstrating the effectiveness of using electricity for capital punishment. As part of his campaign he electrocuted animals, including an elephant, which he conveniently filmed using his relatively new motion picture technology.

New York authorized execution by electrocution in 1888, using AC current (after extensive lobbying by Edison), and Kemmler simply was the first in line by schedule. Westinghouse opposed the use of his AC technology for the purpose, as well as Edison’s unrelenting propagandizing, but eventually the scheduled execution took place in Auburn Prison, Auburn, New York. Rather than humane and quick, it was gruesome and protracted. After a first jolt and a pronouncement of death by the attending physician, Kemmler displayed signs of life. Additional charges of electricity were ordered, leading to several minutes of evident torture experienced by the victim.

Kemmler’s body smoked and charred, convulsed and changed color, filling the execution chamber with the smells of burnt meat. Several witnesses were forced to turn away, sickened by the display. The skin split and bled, hair smoldered, and approximately eight minutes transpired before the physician again announced Kemmler was dead. George Westinghouse later commented that an axe would have been a more efficient method of execution. A New York Times report of the execution headlined “Far Worse Than Hanging”. According to the report one witness, Sheriff O. A. Jenkins of Buffalo, New York, came to the opinion that execution by electrocution, “…would never do”.

5. William Williams, hanging, 1906

As of the end of 2022, William Willams, a convicted murderer, is the last person executed for his crimes by the State of Minnesota. Williams was convicted of killing a teenage boy of whom he was enamored, as well as the boy’s mother, who died in a separate shooting a week later. Williams admitted the murder of the boy, attempted to escape punishment via the insanity defense, and after conviction was sentenced to death by hanging.

Once again, the professional estimation of the hangman failed to address the realities of the execution. The hangman used a rope which was too long for its intended purpose, and Williams dropped to the floor, his neck intact, and with insufficient tension to stimulate strangulation. While Williams awaited, the hangman was forced to solicit assistance for him to complete his duty to the state.

Three or four strong men (depending on sources) were forced to seize the rope and haul upwards, lifting Williams off the floor and strangling him. No reporters were allowed to attend and record the execution, but over thirty witnesses observed Williams’ involuntary struggles against strangulation, which lasted over 14 minutes. Williams was executed in 1906. The state has not conducted an execution since.  In 1911, Minnesota abolished the death penalty.

4. Ginggaew Lorsoongnem, firing squad, 1979

Ginggaew Lorsoongnem was one of six Thai criminals who conspired to kidnap and murder a child. For the purposes of readability the other five shall remain nameless here. Convicted in a trial which was sensationalized in the press and media, Lorsoongnem was sentenced to death in early 1979. In Thailand at the time the preferred method of execution was through a firing squad.

Unbeknownst to her executioners, the convicted criminal was afflicted with situs inversus, meaning her heart, as well as other major organs, was on the opposite side from normal, as in a mirror image. At her execution, Lorsoongnem was struck by at least ten rounds, and since she was unconscious declared dead. Her body was then transferred to the morgue, located nearby in the same compound as that of the execution, where it was deposited to await autopsy.

Authorities, who were busily preparing additional executions, were startled by her screams from the morgue, and her reported attempts to stand once she regained consciousness. She was removed to the execution chamber, and a second firing squad pumped additional rounds into her body. According to Thai reports, the second firing squad completed the execution satisfactorily, at least as far as Thai justice was concerned.

3. John Louis Evans, electrocution, 1983

John Louis Evans’s execution in 1983 was notable at the time as being the first in Alabama since the United States Supreme Court allowed the states to return to the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia (1976). As such it drew considerable media attention in the United States and internationally. Evans was a career criminal, having committed more than two dozen armed robberies, numerous kidnappings, and the murder of a pawn shop owner during the course of a robbery. Evans attempted to plead guilty to the latter, which was rejected by prosecutors, since acceptance of the plea would prevent them from seeking the death penalty.

Scheduled for execution on April 22, 1983, Evans was electrocuted in an electric chair which had been built in the 1920s. and last used in 1965. His execution, witnessed by members of the press, his attorneys, and others, took more than 24 minutes after the first shock was applied. Eventually three were required, and his body smoldered, smoked, and produced sparks while it convulsed with each application of current.

“A large puff of grayish smoke and sparks poured out from under the hood that covered Mr. Evans’ face”, according to a witness, who attended the execution. “An overwhelming stench of burnt flesh and clothing began pervading the witness room”. He was describing the results of the first of the three shocks required before Evans was declared dead, after medical examinations following the first two revealed him to still be alive.

2. Stephen McCoy, lethal injection, 1989

In 1982 Texas became the first American state to use lethal injection, the intravenous administration of a “cocktail” of drugs, as the preferred means of legal execution. Eventually 32 states and the federal government adopted lethal injection, under the belief the method was more humane than hanging, gas, electrocution, or firing squad. In 1989 Stephen McCoy was sentenced to death in Texas. McCoy was a serial killer who, along with a partner named James Paster, was guilty of at least three murders, including the rape of two of the victims. Paster too was executed for his crimes.

For reasons which seem inexplicable to some, lethal injections are typically carried out by medical professionals, who create sanitary fields around the injection site. Although it seems as if post-injection infection is of minor concern to the victim, adherence to procedures is strictly followed. So are the amounts of the drugs administered as well as the rate of administration. In the case of McCoy, rather than simply slipping into a drug-induced coma followed by death, the victim reacted strongly and adversely to the injections.

McCoy’s reaction to the drugs included a physical spasm in which his body arched violently, causing at least one witness to faint. He also audibly gasped for air. Texas officials later admitted the execution had been less than ideal in its completion. According to Jim Mattox, then Attorney General for the State of Texas, “The drugs might have been administered in a heavier dose…” McCoy’s execution was one of the earliest examples of the pitfalls of relying on lethal injection as a humane method of dispatching those sentenced to death.

1. Joseph Lewis Clark, lethal injection, 2006

Joseph Lewis Clark was sentenced to die for the murder of a gas station attendant during a robbery which netted Clark all of $60. Arrested in January, 1964, Clark confessed to the murder (as well as another) after a failed suicide attempt while in custody. Tried and convicted, following the lengthy appeals process, his execution took place in Lucasville, Ohio on May 2, 2006. His execution took place before witnesses, but for an extended period their view was obscured by a curtain. They heard, rather than saw, what transpired in the execution chamber.

What they heard were repeated groans and protests that it wasn’t working, including verbal complaints uttered by the condemned man. When the curtain was opened, the witnesses observed the condemned man raise his head several times and look about him. The procedure took more than 90 minutes, delayed because the medical technicians involved failed to find a vein capable of bearing the intravenous injection. One vein selected collapsed more than a half hour into the execution. One witness reported the victim protesting, “It don’t work”, several times throughout the procedure.

A post-mortem on Clark’s body revealed 19 puncture wounds administered during the search for a suitable injection site. Clark’s execution eventually succeeded, though protests based on what witnesses reported led to increased debate over lethal injections as a means of state executions. Over the centuries humanity has sought a means to humanely dispatch those deemed to be the least humane in society. Despite persistence in trying, it appears the perfect answer to the difficulty continues to be elusive.