Surgical mistakes are some of the most serious errors that can occur while under the care of a medical professional. Each year about 98,000 patients die due to medical malpractice errors that happen during, or as a result of, surgery. Every surgery is different, however, every time a patient undergoes such treatment there is a risk of injury. Anyone involved in a surgical procedure has the potential to commit an error, including the surgeon, anesthesiologist, or a nurse.
Some of the most common surgical mistakes are as follows:
- Commission: The wrong procedure is performed (the wrong body part is opened or an unnecessary surgery occurs).
- Omission: A medical team doesn’t provide the patient with the proper care, such as failing to perform an appendectomy if it is needed.
- Execution: A mistake that involves the failure to correctly perform a procedure. It may lead to serious injury, or simply not give you the desired result.
Some other common errors include the use of unsterile instruments, leaving a medical instrument in the body cavity of a patient, incorrect administrations of anesthesia, and the failure to tell a patient about the risk and dangers of a procedure before scheduling it. The surgical procedures most likely to result in errors include childbirth, gastric bypass, cardiac surgeries, thoracic surgeries, and cosmetic procedures. These are the most common type of surgeries that lead to problems, but any surgical procedure has the potential for mistakes.
Surgical mistakes can cause a lot of stress for patients. Losing the wrong limb, for example, is a traumatic event. Having to go into surgery a second time to remedy a problem is risky, and can make recovery times longer and more difficult. Serious injury following a procedure can lead to more health problems down the road.
To learn more about your legal entitlements, it is important to speak with skilled medical malpractice attorneys, birth injury attorneys, defective product attorneys, nursing home negligence attorneys, and personal injury attorneys in Scranton, Pennsylvania.