Florida surgeon performs disc replacement on wrong area of patient's spine

Spine

Florida health officials have ordered a spine surgeon to take additional courses and pay a fine after performing disc replacement surgery on the wrong part of a patient's spine, the Miami Herald reports.

During a total disc replacement procedure on a patient at Crane Creek Surgical Center in Melbourne, Fla., James Billys, MD, performed spinal arthroplasty on C6-7 and C7-T1 rather than the indicated C5-6 and C6-7.

In a March 18 final order from the Florida Board of Medicine, Dr. Billys was ordered to take a continuing medical education course in risk management and perform a lecture on wrong site surgery to the entire medical staff at Brandon Regional Hospital, where he holds privileges.

He was also ordered to pay a $3,000 fine.

It was not reported how the botched procedure affected the patient.

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