An Ohio woman who entered the hospital expecting to lose part of one leg because of cancer says she woke up to discover surgeons had amputated the wrong one.
Sharon Jacks, 74, has filed a lawsuit against Selby General Hospital in Marietta, Ohio, along with members of the surgical team, accusing them of negligence and other wrongdoing over the September 2025 operation.
Jacks had been scheduled for a below-the-knee amputation of her right leg on Sept. 19, 2025, as part of her treatment for squamous cell carcinoma.
Instead, according to the lawsuit, surgeons removed her left leg.
The mistake left Jacks in an unimaginable position. The cancer in her right leg still required treatment, and roughly four months later she underwent the originally planned right-leg amputation at another hospital.
She is now a double amputee.
“She went into surgery, and when she woke up, the wrong leg had been taken off,” Jacks’ attorney, Brad Layne, told local media.
He called the incident difficult to explain, particularly because records allegedly showed that the correct leg had initially been marked before the operation.
According to Layne, that mark was reportedly still visible on Jacks’ right leg after doctors had amputated the left one.
The lawsuit alleges there were multiple chances for the surgical team to catch the error before it became irreversible.
Hospital staff reportedly conducted two surgical “time-outs,” a standard safety step designed to confirm details such as the patient’s identity, the planned procedure and the correct surgical site before an operation moves forward.
Despite those checks, the lawsuit alleges the team continued with the wrong leg.
The complaint accuses the defendants of gross negligence, battery and reckless conduct and seeks both compensatory and punitive damages.
Jacks says the consequences have permanently altered her life.
The lawsuit states she suffered physical injury, permanent disability, pain and suffering, emotional distress, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life and substantial medical expenses as a result of the alleged mistake.
Her attorneys argue that a wrong-site amputation is the type of medical error that should never occur when established surgical safeguards are properly followed.
Selby General Hospital has acknowledged that an “adverse surgical event” occurred in September 2025.
The hospital said an internal review determined the incident was avoidable and that its expected operating-room procedures had not been followed.
“Those involved were held accountable for their actions and are no longer in their positions,” the hospital said in a statement.
The hospital also said it cooperated with a review by the Ohio Department of Health and has since implemented corrective measures intended to prevent a similar incident from happening again.
“We are saddened by what occurred, and our team continues to keep this patient and their family in our prayers,” the hospital said.
The case centers on what patient-safety experts often describe as a “never event” — a serious medical error that is considered largely preventable when standard safety protocols are followed.
Wrong-site surgery can include operating on the wrong side of the body, performing the wrong procedure or treating the wrong patient.
Hospitals typically use several safeguards to prevent such errors, including physically marking the correct surgical site and requiring the entire operating-room team to pause and confirm the procedure immediately before surgery begins.
Jacks’ lawsuit argues that those safeguards failed at nearly every level.
The case was filed in Washington County and remains pending.
No court has yet ruled on the allegations or determined liability.
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