Were You the Victim of a Surgical Error?

Too many patients suffer unnecessary injuries and complications due to mistakes by surgeons and other medical professionals. After a surgical error, you should discuss your rights with a Las Vegas medical malpractice lawyer who can assess a possible case.

You look to doctors and surgeons to help restore your health, and you should not expect to sustain injuries due to a surgical error that leaves you less healthy than you were, to begin with. Surgical errors, however, happen more often than you probably realize, and the results can be devastating – in terms of physical, financial, and emotional damages. If you’ve been injured by a surgical error, consult with an experienced Las Vegas medical malpractice lawyer today.

Surgical Error Statistics

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) relays information that highlights all of the following:

• Surgical errors account directly for a significant number of adverse outcomes.
• Every year in the United States, there are at least 4,000 surgical errors.
• The most common source of these surgical errors is operating on the wrong body part.

Further, the literature reports on some of the common causes of surgical errors, which can include:

• Surgeons who don’t have adequate training and education for the surgeries they are performing
• Medical facilities that don’t implement the appropriate level of standardized safety protocols
• Gaps in communication between surgeons and other medical professionals involved in their surgeries (such as anesthesiologists)
• Surgeons who are in a rush to complete their surgeries

Common Surgical Errors

In addition to operating on the wrong body part (which is an error so blatant and dangerous that it is considered a “never event”), there are many other types of surgical errors, including:

• Performing an unnecessary surgery
• Failing to provide adequate monitoring throughout the surgical process
• Using surgical instruments that aren’t properly sterilized
• Making an anesthesiology error
• Leaving something behind in the patient’s body
• Damaging an internal organ or artery

Other errors that are also classified as never events include operating on the wrong person and performing the wrong surgery. Anyone of the errors listed – and especially never events – can upend your life and impact your future.

Determining Liability for Surgical Errors

To demonstrate that the injury you sustained was caused by a surgical error, you must be able to show that the surgeon’s conduct was negligent because it didn’t reach the standard of care that is generally accepted in such situations (by other surgeons in the same specialty). A surgical error is different than just an adverse effect – every surgery is, after all, associated with meaningful risk. An experienced personal injury lawyer with wide-ranging experience in these complicated cases can help you establish that your injury is directly related to surgical error.

An Experienced Las Vegas Medical Malpractice Lawyer Can Help

If you or someone you care about has been injured by a surgical error, the dedicated Las Vegas medical malpractice attorneys at Breeden Malpractice & Injury Law are here to help effectively and efficiently guide you through the complicated legal process and toward a favorable resolution. Your rights, your health, and your future are far too important not to bring your strongest case, so please don’t hesitate to contact us online or call us at (702) 819-7770 for a free consultation today.