Surgery malpractice is a frightening occurrence that injuries and kills thousands of Americans every year. Surgery errors and surgery malpractice involves technical errors or judgment errors made by the surgeon. Surgical errors can lead to serious injuries or even death for the patient. Surgeries are often quite complicated, because of this complexity, surgical errors sometimes occur and the surgeon doesn't even realize the mistake was made, until it is too late. Surgical errors can be made by skilled surgeons as well as with inexperienced surgeons, and can occur with simple operations as well as complex operations.
One area where surgery errors occur is with medical clinics and doctor's offices for elective procedures, including cosmetic and bariatric surgeries. When a serious injury occurs, the medical facility may not have the resources including equipment and trained medical staff to handle the emergency. The type of trained medical staff doctor's offices and medical clinics are usually lacking include board certified anesthesiologists, critical care nurses, and a full staff of operating room nurses. When an emergency occurs, the patient may be kept waiting a dangerous amount of time for an ambulance to transport him or her to a hospital. Those minutes of waiting can turn a serious emergency into a catastrophic disaster.
Although hospitals are equipped with a variety of resources to help patients during a medical emergency, medical mistakes including surgery errors are still made. Also a doctor or surgeon may not be available to operate on a patient during an emergency. The hospital may not have enough surgeons on the premises or the surgeons may be involved with other operations. If a patient with a serious medical condition is kept waiting too long, the condition may progress into a serious and permanent injury, such as brain damage or even death.
Surgical errors and surgery malpractice include:
- Operating on the wrong side of a patient's body
- Removing the wrong body part during an operation
- Puncturing an organ near the area of operation which could result in dangerous fluids entering the perforated organ, causing a serious infection or death.
- Using contaminated medical products
Many people believe that surgical errors and surgery mistakes only happen during major operations or emergency operations. However, during elective surgeries such as plastic surgery or cosmetic surgery, surgical errors occur as well, sometimes leaving the patient with permanent injuries such as severe brain damage, even death. Types of elective surgeries where a serious injury can result from medical malpractice:
Cosmetic surgery:
- Liposuction
- Breast augmentation
- Facelifts
- Rhinoplasty, which is commonly referred to as a nose job
Bariatric surgery:
- Gastric bypass
- Lap band
- Stomach stapling
If you or a family member has been injured from medical malpractice, including suffering injuries from a surgery error, contact the Law Offices of Dr. Bruce G. Fagel & Associates for a free legal consultation.