Being a surgeon is a difficult job that requires years of study, practice, and of course, a steady hand. While most surgeons and health care professionals perform their job with the highest degree of professionalism, unfortunately, every year thousands of patients in America are injured because of mistakes made during surgery that never should have happened.
Because errors made on the operating table can have life-altering consequences for patients, surgeons and health care professionals whose negligence injures or kills a patient can be sued for medical malpractice. If you or a loved one has been injured because of a surgeon’s mistake, consider contacting a personal injury lawyer Bronx in your area.
Careless errors made by surgeons
While one would think most surgical errors occur during complicated operations, that’s not the case. Many errors happen during routine surgeries because of simple reasons like poor communication, carelessness or just sheer incompetence.
Listed below are some of the most common surgical errors:
- Anesthesia errors. Administering anesthesia is a standard part of most surgeries, but it needs to be done correctly. When a health care professional gives a patient too much anesthesia, the results can be deadly because too little oxygen can lead to brain damage. However, when too little anesthesia is administered, the patient is at risk of waking up and experiencing incredible pain.
- Nerve damage. Surgeons often need to operate in direct contact with nerves and the surrounding tissues. This means the slightest mistake can cause a damaged nerve, which could potentially lead to a lifetime disability.
- Wrong patient surgery. This is one of the more terrifying errors that happens in hospitals and health care centers today. When poor communication and failure to follow protocol cause a surgeon to operate on the wrong patient, all sorts of awful things can happen, like the removal of healthy organs.
- Foreign objects left in a patient’s body. Sadly, this happens far more frequently than it should, which is never. Patients have been left with scalpels, gauzes, sponges and clamps in their body, a problem that could be solved with an easy checklist.
- Wrong site surgery. This occurs when a surgeon operates on the wrong body part by mistake.
Because the stakes are so high, surgeons and other health care professionals are expected to follow a strict protocol to avoid mistakes. When they fail to do so and act negligently, they should be held accountable for their errors.
When mistakes are made on the operating table, the consequences can be drastic and sometimes even deadly. If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice, you should contact an experienced malpractice attorney in the Bronx right away.
Contact an experienced medical malpractice lawyer in the Bronx
At the The Law Offices of Evan W. Kohn, we have 30 years of experience fighting for our clients’ right to fair compensation in medical malpractice cases. If you have questions about filing a claim, give us a call today at 718-409-5500 for a free consultation or contact us online.