The day after her baby son Nate was born in December, a doctor at the local hospital mistakenly requested him from the nursery, performing an unnecessary “tongue-clipping” surgery that was intended for another baby.
“I can’t sleep, it’s like a horrible dream come to life,” Melton, 31, tells PEOPLE. “I worry and pray that he doesn’t have any issues in the future from what they did with this unneeded procedure.”
Melton gave birth to her “happy and healthy” little boy via C-section at University Medical Center in Lebanon, Tennessee, in the morning. The next day, as the mother rested, a nurse came to take her son away for what Melton thought was a routine postnatal checkup – “checking blood-type, weight gain, that type of thing” – and told her to get some sleep.
When little Nate was brought back to Melton the nurse began talking about the frenulectomy performed on their child.
“She started explaining how the procedure would help with our nursing problems and I go, ‘You must have the wrong paperwork, our nursing is fine,’ ” says Melton, a Hartsville, Tennessee, resident. “I even double checked to make sure she handed me the right baby!”
Minutes later, Melton received a call on the in-room telephone from the physician who had performed the surgery.
“The pediatrician explained to me that he had accidentally asked for the wrong child, and performed the surgery on Nate by mistake,” says Melton. “He said he was sorry for what had happened, but that Nate would be fine and that ‘he didn’t even cry that much during the surgery.’ “
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