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A St. Louis neurosurgeon has been accused of operating on the wrong side of a woman's skull and brain, leaving her unable speak properly or take care of herself.

Regina Turner, 53, of St. Ann, Missouri, was scheduled for a left-sided craniotomy bypass at St. Clare Health Center in Fenton on April 4, but was instead given a right-sided craniotomy surgical procedure, according to St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Once realizing their error, surgeons at St. Clare Health Center in Fenton had Turner undergo another procedure  six days later to operate on the correct side of her brain.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County in Clayton, Turner is accusing neurosurgeon Dr. Armond Levy and SSM Health Care-St. Louis, which owns St. Clare Health Center, of negligence and carelessness. According to the St. Clare website, Levy is one of seven board-certified neurosurgeons affiliated with SSM Neurosciences Institute.

The suit states that Turner was able to take care of herself before the operation and now she needs "around the clock care for her basic needs... (She) will also continue to suffer from emotional distress, anxiety, disfigurement and depression".

Turner had worked as an internet service provider and paralegal in Oklahoma City before she moved to St. Louis to live with her sister.

Turner started suffering a number of mini strokes about five years ago.  While the strokes affected her speech, members of her family were still able to understand her. Turner's surgery on April 4 was supposed to prevent future strokes.

Officials at SSM Health Care-St. Louis declined to comment about the lawsuit.

However, Bill Hoefer, president of St. Clare Health Center told St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the hospital is "committed to patient safety and the highest-quality health care."

"If a medical error does occur, we take it very seriously. We investigate thoroughly to see what processes can be changed to prevent it from ever happening again, and then we make those changes immediately," Hoefer said.

According to the suit, SSM staff did not set up the operating room correctly, and "stood by and watched A.L. operate on the wrong side of the plaintiff's skull and brain when they could have prevented the error."

The suit is demanding punitive damages "sufficient to punish" SSM and Levy for their "complete indifference to or conscious disregard for the safety of Regina Turner."