(May 12) - A woman who was abandoned on the operating table says she felt "completely devastated" after finding out doctors lied to her about why the procedure was postponed, according to the Daily News in New York.
Skip over this content
On April 10, Jennifer Ronca was prepped and anesthetized for brain surgery at Long Island's North Shore University Hospital. But when the 32-year-old woke up, she found out she was never operated on by Dr. Paolo Bolognese, who canceled due to a "family emergency."
When Bolognese's colleague, Dr. Thomas Milhorat, was asked by the frantic hospital staff to perform the operation, Ronca said she was told he refused to step in, saying she wasn't his patient.
To make matters worse, the Pennsylvania mother of three said she was later told by a hospital administrator that Bolognese really didn't have a family emergency and that the matter was being investigated.
Skip over this content
"They were all lying to me," Ronca told the newspaper.
Last week, the Daily News reported that Bolognese and Milhorat, who has stepped down as chief of neurosurgery, were both suspended for two weeks over the incident.
Ronca, who had been seeking relief from debilitating headaches caused by a 2001 car crash, ended up getting the operation -- with different doctors -- three weeks later than originally scheduled.
Go to the Daily News to read more about Ronca's ordeal and how the postponed surgery complicated her plans to be in a September wedding.
Skip over this content
