What a horror story! Maybe it’s a 1-in-10,000 occurrence but it still scares the crap out of me.
IMO the patient was not adequately evaluated pre-op. How could a megacolon be a surprise? No CT?
In non-trauma situations, patients for whom a splenectomy is recommended usually have significant medical issues: cancer, painful enlarged spleen, hematologic disorders ec, and an extensive workup is done to evaluate the primary disease and to exclude other issues before surgery.
I remember another story
Man had testicular tumor on one testicle. He had signed consent for diagnostic procedure for that particular testicle. When it came time for the surgery to remove the cancerous testicle, the surgical fellow came in to the patients room to have the patient sign the consent. The patient wanted to read the form, the fellow told the patient that “nothing was changed” on the form. The patient signed the form. Only it was found that the wrong(healthy) testicle was listed on the consent. The healthy one was removed, and then the cancerous one had to be removed later.
Never let the hospital staff, or doctors, or anyone hurry you into making a decision until you are sure of what you are agreeing to. In cases of emergency that may be hard to do, but if you have a choice, verify everything possible. Don’t let them roll their eyes, or sigh, as if you are some dummy.