When the expert witness goes completely off the rails

The medical forensic expertise of a patient operated on for the extraction of a straight object (needle) planted in the perineal area gave the following (extract):

"This metallic foreign body was removed in the operating room under general anesthesia on July 1 2020 at the Hospital XXX. It was located in the axis of the right labia majora at the level of his lower half and extended to the buttock. He was located between 6 and 12mm deep."

Subcutaneous needle locator diagram

We note that in the diagram above, provided in the legal expert report, the needle is absolutely not in the axis of the right labia majora, in contradiction with the text of the report. See the same diagram commented below.

Subcutaneous needle locator diagram

We also note that the drawing of the needle drawn by the legal expert absolutely does not correspond to its real location on the x-ray commented below.

The frontal X-ray gives a frontal projection of the different elements constituting the pelvis (which are superimposed on the image). The image of the needle is not superimposed with that of the labia majora or the axis of the labia majora. The expert witness's fellowship with her colleague, a surgeon, led her to express an incoherent point of view in an attempt to justify the statements of the surgeon, who was at fault. He had in fact stated that the needle was in the right labia majora and had incised it up to the right buttock where he had found the needle after 2 hours of operation, with disastrous consequences for the patient. This is not a simple diagnostic error, but a professional misconduct. Beyond the evidence that the needle could not be located in the right labia majora, the surgeon should have ordered 2 X-rays, one from the front, the other from the side or, better, subjected the patient to a 3D tomography (scanner) to precisely locate the needle, before operating.

CONCLUSION: In the name of confraternity, doctors, whether they are legal experts or not, do not change their minds among themselves, even if it means falling into the most total absurdity. This is called getting tangled up in things.