Surgery is an invasive medical treatment that is performed by specialists in sterile, controlled hospital settings. When a surgeon performs an operation on a patient, they often must, through instruments, enter a body part of their patient to fix or remove a problem, such as a tumor. Many surgeries go well and leave patients with improved medical outcomes. Some surgeries are error-ridden and cause patients extensive harm.
Surgical errors can happen in different ways, but this post will introduce 3 common ways they happen in operating rooms. This post does not offer its readers any legal or medical advice. All concerns and legal questions regarding instances of medical malpractice can and should be discussed with New York-based personal injury attorneys.
Wrong patient surgeries
Wrong patient surgeries happen when doctors perform scheduled operations on the wrong people. For example, a surgeon may have two procedures schedule in a given day. They may, through their own negligence, switch the surgeries and do the wrong procedures on their two scheduled cases.
Wrong procedure surgeries
A wrong procedure surgery is what it sounds like – a victim goes in for surgery and has the wrong operation performed. Like wrong patient surgeries, wrong procedure surgeries can often be avoided when doctors and hospital teams take proper preventative precautions to avoid mix-ups and mistakes and involve patients in the pre-surgical preparation processes.
Wrong site surgeries
Wrong site surgeries are problematic because patients receive the correct procedures but on the wrong parts of their bodies. For example, a patient may require a procedure on their left arm but have their surgery performed on their right arm. Wrong site surgeries subject victims to unnecessary procedures and leave them with their untreated medical conditions.
When a victim suffers a surgical mistake, they can be forced to endure the pain of an erroneous procedure and the suffering of their untreated underlying medical condition. Their losses can be extensive, and their future can be complex. Litigation is an option for some victim of medical malpractice and can be better understood with the help of a personal injury law attorney.