A south Florida man is suing a hospital for emotional distress after his amputated leg was discovered in a hospital dumpster.

After John Timiriasieff had his right leg amputated below the knee at Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, the leg was discovered at a waste management facility and reported to local authorities. A month later, his family was contacted by homicide detectives investigating whether foul play led to the leg being thrown in the hospital garbage.

"Rather than properly disposing of the plaintiff's limb as expected and as required by Florida law, Doctors Hospital threw the Plaintiff's amputated limb into the garbage, with tags indicating it belonged to the Plaintiff," according to the lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.

Normally, amputated limbs are incinerated by hospitals. The lawsuit noted that when the family went back to the hospital to find out what happened, they were told it would "provide no explanation for what had occurred." Timiriasieff described the hospital's conduct as "outrageous and beyond the bounds of human decency as to be regarded as odious and utterly intolerable in a caviled community."

Doctors Hospital said it could not discuss the incident because of patient privacy considerations, other than to say, "Proper procedures have been reinforced at the hospital to prevent similar situations from happening in the future."

"I have heard of people having the wrong limb removed but hospitals aren't supposed to throw them away," Timiriasieff's lawyer said, noting that Timiriasieff is particularly upset by the hospital's unwillingness to accept responsibility and its failure to protect his private medical information.

—Source:  reuters.com