Medical malpractice is dangerous and impacts the lives of Kentucky residents in many different ways. All too often, individuals are harmed when their doctors, nurses, and other practitioners fail to meet their duties of care to their patients and leave them in worsened medical conditions. When this happens, victims of medical malpractice may be able to sue for the recovery of their injury-related damages.
Mistakes happen in many different medical contexts, including the execution of surgical procedures. This post will examine three common surgical mistakes that hurt victims and cause them financial and emotional losses. No part of this post provides medical or legal advice, and all victims of medical malpractice should talk to their trusted personal injury attorneys for support.
Wrong patient surgeries
One common surgical mistake that can afflict Kentucky residents is wrong patient surgeries. Wrong patient surgeries happen when medical providers perform procedures on individuals who do not need them. This can happen when a doctor has multiple patients to operate on in a single day and does the wrong surgery on one of them.
Wrong site surgeries
A wrong site surgery can leave a patient with unnecessary pain and suffering. It happens when a doctor performs the correct surgery on a patient but on the wrong part of their body. Wrong site surgeries are unfortunately common when procedures must be done on symmetrical parts of the body, such as arms, legs, or lungs.
Wrong procedure surgeries
Wrong procedure surgeries often go hand in hand with wrong patient surgeries. A wrong procedure surgery happens when the right patient goes into the operating room, but their doctor does not do the procedure they are scheduled for. These mistakes often necessitate additional procedures to correct the mistakes made.
What makes surgical errors so frustrating is that they are often preventable. Problems often develop when surgical teams lack clear channels of communication and when patients are left out of the pre-surgical checks to ensure they are receiving the right procedures on the right parts of their bodies. There are many ways that doctors and hospitals can work to protect patients through presurgical checking procedures and to help avoid the costly and painful problems related to surgical errors and mistakes.
No patient should have to endure the pain of a surgical error and the consequences that follow. When they happen, victims should remember that they have rights and may be able to sue for the recovery of their incident-related damages. Personal injury attorneys can provide legal support and guidance for those readers with questions about medical malpractice, surgical errors, and other injury-related issues.