Surgical Negligence
Unfortunately, surgeons and hospitals make preventable negligent or
careless mistakes during surgery. Common surgical errors include
leaving operating tools, or leaving operating sponges inside a
patient; surgery on the wrong part of the body or wrong organ;
surgery for an organ that should not have been operated on because
of a faulty reading of X-Rays, CAT Scans, or MRI.s; negligent
operating techniques. Doctors, surgeons, gynecologists, orthopedic
surgeons and laparoscopic surgeons who are at fault for this
mistake should be held accountable for any carelessness. Such
carelessness is most often, in our experience, due to the following
contributing factors to surgical errors: surgeon fatigue,
inattentiveness; mis-communication amongst surgical staff; poor
handwriting in patients' charts; poor pre-operative planning;
failure to take proper patient medical history; and a failure to
note all drug allergies. As a result of any surgical error, the
pain and suffering of the patient to fix those errors, sometimes by
way of additional surgeries, obviously increases. Patients may
have to pay for multiple surgeries; there may be nerve or organ
damage, or infection and scarring. The emotional toll of being a
victim of a surgical mistake is oftentimes profound. According to
a www.sciencedaily.com article dated November 17, 2009 an estimated
5 to 10 incorrect surgical procedures occur daily in the United
States. Surgeries can be performed on the wrong site, wrong side of
the body, using an incorrect procedure or even on the wrong patient.
Ophthalmology and orthopedic surgery was associated with the most
reported cases of surgical errors, comprising a whopping 45% of all
surgical errors.
Improper gynecologic surgeries can be the result of misread laboratory
tests or incorrectly performed office procedures. Gynecologists often
perform laparoscopies for some procedures which may result in a
surgical cut of an artery during that laparoscopy which of course can
result in severe bleeding and death. In one case our office handled,
we represented a patient whose gynecologist performed a laparoscopy
and cut not one but three different areas of her large bowel by
mistake. She also suffered over 3 liters of loss of blood during the
laparoscopy.
Another area of surgical error is in the field of surgical
opthamalogy. LASIK surgery is common among eyeglass wearers. Some
LASIK surgery results in clear medical malpractice as well.
At the Diefenbach Law Firm, our New York medical malpractice lawyers
will investigate your medical records and use expert surgeons and
doctors as needed to uncover any error or mistake your doctor may
have committed during surgery, or laporoscopy, or eye surgery.
Should we accept your case, we will leave no stone unturned as we
unravel what may have happened in the operating room.
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