Sharon Jacks, a 74-year-old Army veteran from Ohio, is suing a hospital she says amputated the wrong leg during a scheduled operation — leaving her a double amputee after doctors later had to remove the correct leg too. The wrong leg amputated lawsuit, filed this month in Washington County Common Pleas Court in Marietta, Ohio, names nine defendants and accuses the surgical team of gross negligence, battery, and reckless conduct.
According to the lawsuit, Jacks went to Selby General Hospital in September 2025 for a planned below-the-knee amputation of her right leg. Instead, doctors removed her left leg during the procedure, the 32-page complaint alleges, as reported by NBC.
Her attorney, Brad Layne, told reporters that during the first surgery, the team of doctors marked the correct leg but then amputated the wrong one. They realized the error during the procedure and informed Jacks’ family before she woke up. “The mark was still on the correct leg after the wrong leg had been taken off,” Layne said.
How the Wrong Leg Amputation Happened
The amputation of Jacks’ lower right leg was recommended as part of a treatment plan for a diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, according to the lawsuit. She “consented only to surgery involving her right lower extremity” and “never consented to amputation of her left lower extremity,” the complaint states.
According to the complaint, medical records show that the surgical team conducted two “time-outs” before the procedure. In surgery, these pauses are supposed to be used to confirm the patient’s identity, the planned procedure, and the correct surgical site. But “despite multiple opportunities … to identify and correct the error,” the team proceeded to amputate the wrong leg, the complaint alleged.
Four months after the wrong surgery, Jacks underwent the originally intended amputation at another facility and is now a double amputee. Both of her legs were amputated below the knee. After the correct operation, she has been cancer-free.
Allegations in the Lawsuit
Jacks and her husband named nine defendants in the suit, including the hospital and members of Jacks’ medical and surgical teams. The complaint accuses them of gross negligence, battery, and reckless conduct.
Jacks “suffered physical injury, permanent disability, pain and suffering, emotional distress, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of life, medical expenses and other damages,” the lawsuit stated.
“Defendants acted willfully, wantonly, recklessly, maliciously, and with conscious disregard for the substantial certainty of catastrophic injury,” the 32-page complaint alleged.
NBC News reported that Dr. Gregory Krivchenia II, who is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit and performed the wrong surgery, is still licensed to practice in Ohio.
Hospital Calls It an “Avoidable Event”
The hospital has acknowledged the catastrophe. In a statement, Selby General Hospital called the incident an “avoidable event” and said it retrained all of its surgical staff. Staffers involved in Jacks’ operation “are no longer in their positions,” according to the hospital.
A hospital spokesperson, Jennifer Offenberger, did not immediately return requests for comment on the lawsuit, according to NBC.
Wrong-site surgeries — in which surgeons operate on the wrong body part, the wrong patient, or perform the wrong procedure — are considered “never events” in medicine: errors that should never occur. Hospitals typically use the Universal Protocol, including the pre-procedure “time-out” that the complaint says failed twice in Jacks’ case.
Life as a Double Amputee
The complaint describes the toll on Jacks, an Army veteran in her seventies, in stark terms: permanent disability, humiliation, and loss of enjoyment of life. Where a single planned amputation would have left her able to rehabilitate with one healthy leg, she now faces life without either leg below the knee.
The case has drawn national attention precisely because it combines two failures: the wrong-site surgery itself, and the fact that the safeguard designed to catch it — the surgical time-out — was reportedly performed twice without preventing the error.
Legal experts say wrong-site surgery cases often settle because the facts are so stark, but Jacks’ lawsuit seeks to establish a broader record of alleged recklessness, accusing the defendants not just of a mistake but of conduct “with conscious disregard for the substantial certainty of catastrophic injury.”
For more of our coverage of cases moving through the courts, see our report on Facebook’s privacy lawsuit in New Mexico.
What Comes Next
The lawsuit is now before the Washington County Common Pleas Court in Marietta. No trial date has been set, and the defendants have not yet filed public responses to the allegations. The hospital’s acknowledgment that the incident was “avoidable” — and its admission that staff involved are gone — may shape the legal battle ahead, but the case will ultimately turn on what happened inside that operating room in September 2025.
Patient safety advocates say the case is a reminder that surgical checklists only work when every person in the room treats them as more than paperwork. For Sharon Jacks, two missed chances at a time-out cost her both legs.
FAQ
Who is Sharon Jacks?
Sharon Jacks is a 74-year-old Army veteran from Meigs County, Ohio. She filed a lawsuit this month in Washington County Common Pleas Court in Marietta, alleging that surgeons at Selby General Hospital amputated her left leg in September 2025 when the planned surgery was to remove her right leg.
Why did she need an amputation?
The amputation was recommended as part of a treatment plan for squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, according to the lawsuit. After the correct leg was eventually amputated four months later, she has been cancer-free.
What does the lawsuit allege?
The 32-page complaint names nine defendants — the hospital and members of her medical and surgical teams — and accuses them of gross negligence, battery, and reckless conduct. It alleges that two pre-surgery “time-outs” failed to catch the error, and that the surgical team knew about the mistake before Jacks woke up.
How did the hospital respond?
Selby General Hospital called the incident an “avoidable event,” said it retrained all surgical staff, and said the staffers involved in Jacks’ operation “are no longer in their positions.” A spokesperson did not immediately return requests for comment on the lawsuit.
Sources: NBC, Times of India, TheBullPost.
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