A 71-year-old man with lumbago went into shock in our emergency room and died despite attempted resuscitation. Autopsy revealed an abdominal aortic aneurysm that had ruptured into the subserosa of the sigmoid colon and the retroperitoneal cavity.

A 62-year-old woman with severe aortic stenosis underwent apicoaortic bypass grafting. The graft was implanted inversely at first ; on the next day, it was re-implanted in the right direction. She recovered once from heart failure ; however, on postoperative day (POD) 74, she died from respiratory failure. On POD 16, an in-house multidisciplinary investigatory commission reviewed the human factors that had led to the surgical error. Throughout the investigation, we provided relevant information about the event and explanations. We presented our apologies the patient's family and offered to compensate them for their losses.