Surgical Malpractice

Malpractice is a legal term that refers to various different circumstances such as misconduct and improper performance causing damage to a patient. Surgery malpractice is a surgeon’s failure to provide enough treatment to patients leading to an injury, substantial loss of income, or even death to a patient. These surgical operation mistakes made by surgeons and health professionals who perform major operations on patients, are due to some sort of negligence.

Causes of surgery malpractice

The practices on the operating room that may cause sloppy surgical performance or flawed surgical operation include the following: incorrect incision, use of unsanitary surgical utensils, organ puncture or perforation, delayed surgery, surgery on wrong organ, and prolonged surgery. These surgical mistakes will most likely lead to serious complications and, in severe cases, death.

Instances of surgery malpractice

Every time an individual has to undergo a surgical operation, whether it is as simple as an appendectomy or as serious as heart transplant, there will always be the risks of surgery malpractice since surgical negligence may happen in any kind of medical operation. Even the simple cosmetic surgical procedures may lead to surgery malpractice due to negligence. The most common types of operations where surgical errors usually occur are childbirth, gastric bypass, cardiothoracic, rhinoplasty, thoracic surgery, and laparoscopic intestinal surgery.

Among the top diseases that will be able to receive monetary awards, in terms of dollar values, due to surgery malpractice include cancer (breast, lung, colon, and rectal), heart problems, and appendicitis. The severity of these conditions tends to explain the large monetary awards involved.

Facing the truth about surgery malpractice

In the United States alone, approximately 225,000 people suffer or even die every year due to negligent acts of health care professionals and services. This makes surgery and medical malpractice among the leading causes of death in the country, together with cancer and heart disease fatalities. For more articles like this, bookmark www.SurgicalMalpractice.Info

Author: Kevin Stith

Surgical malpractice is clearly no laughing matter.  However, we all hear those wacky stories about surgical instruments and other items being left inside of surgical patients, often presented in a light, kind of “can you believe this?” type manner.   I saw a recent show that was quite gruesome, showing x rays of instruments inside a variety of patients, as well as footage of a surgical procedure to go “back in” to get said instruments!    The host doing the voice over, and even some of the patients and doctors both were treating some of the procedures in a somewhat joking manner, one patient even claiming that he had no idea that there had been anything left behind until he attempted to go through a security check at an airport and they could not figure out what was triggering the metal detector.  Whoa.

While some of these shows present this as an education in surgical procedures, there truly is a voyeuristic and “entertainment” value to these programs as well.  While many of us are left shaking our heads, jaws on the floor perhaps, maybe even laughing at that patient’s expense, this is a serious form of surgery malpractice, and there are patients who even die from items left behind that can cause a variety of complications.  Not to mention that these patients often have to go under the knife yet one more time to remove items, creating a greater risk to their health and their lives.

In an article published in July, 2008, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (”AHRQ”) reported sponges, needles or surgical instruments are left in a patient’s body an estimated 1 in every 7,000 surgeries which could be the basis for a surgical malpractice or medical malpractice case.

Instruments are counted by nurses before an operation commences and after the operation has been performed prior to closure of the incision. However, the AHRQ notes staff fatigue, changing teams and interruptions can prevent an accurate count.

The AHRQ calculated there is a 1.6 percent chance of an instrument being left in a patient. This estimation was based on the low number of reported cases where an instrument was left in the patient versus the odds increasing 113-fold that a foreign object was retained in the patient when the final account was contradictory.

The AHRQ goes on to say that physicians must make a choice whether it is beneficial to delay closure of the operation site, increasing the patient’s risk of infection, or conduct further tests or searches for the missing object based on the 1.6 percent chance it is in the patient’s body. It notes that doing additional searches increases the costs of surgery.

Surgery involves use of multiple instruments and supplies. A partial list of items which might be left in a patient’s body are:

Sponges

Clamps

Forceps

Distractors

Dilators

Scalpels

A study that followed 54 patients with retained surgical instruments in their bodies indicated the thirty-seven of these patients required a further operation to remove sponges or surgical instruments.One patient died.

Surgical instruments left inside the body have the potential to cause internal bleeding by puncture of organs or blood vessels. Sponges and gauze may fester inside the body leading to serious infections. The statute of limitations, the time within which a lawsuit may be commenced, begins to run on the day the surgical error was made. However, if the patient is unaware a surgical error occurred during their surgery, the statute of limitations may start, or be tolled and/or extended, from the date they discovered they have an instrument left in their body.

In this case, the patient has to seek medical attention as soon as they have pain. If they delay seeing a doctor about the pain, the statute of limitations may be limited and might commence on the day they first had pain regardless, suggesting the date when it should have been discovered, rather than from the date when they sought medical treatment.

Sometimes it is many months or even years before pain or ill health makes it evident a surgical error happened. Risk factors for retention of surgical instruments in a patient’s body increases with emergency surgery, an unanticipated change during the operation and a high body-mass index.

Patients who experience surgical instruments left in their body will undergo pain, possible further surgery, serious health consequences and incur expenses in what might be a long process to remove the object and recover their health.

These patients should seek immediate legal advice from an experienced medical malpractice attorney. To delay may prevent them from suing for compensation for pain and suffering because of expiration of the statute of limitations.

Author: Richard Hastings

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Hastings

Surgical Malpractice occurs all too often, even with the incredible advances in medicine and medical science.  However, there is a human element to surgery, and this human element sometimes results in mistakes that can even cause fatalities.  If you, or a loved one, has suffered from surgery malpractice, a medical malpractice attorney can assist you with much needed legal representation. 

Surgeons spend years in school, training to ensure that they are able to make the appropriate decisions while under immense pressure. However, hospitals often over-work their staff, inhibiting their decision-making ability for immediate surgeries. Before going under the knife for a complicated surgical procedure, worrying that your surgeon isn’t adequately rested is the last thing you need to worry about.

Yet surgical medical malpractice kills an estimated 98,000 hospital patients every year, according to the Institute of Medicine. And that doesn’t even take into account those who have sustained life-changing injuries as a result of surgical malpractice. Considering the training your surgeons must undergo, this is simply inexcusable!

Definition of Surgical Medical Malpractice

Surgical malpractice is when the surgeon fails to provide their patient with the proper care, resulting in a personal injury or death. Not exercising their skills or following typical medical standards is when one has a case for medical malpractice.

Causes of Surgical Medical Malpractice

The causes of surgical malpractice are often simple mistakes, ones that should never occur if your surgeon is properly trained and sufficiently rested.

• Incorrect incision
• Use of unsanitary surgical tools
• Delayed surgery
• Prolonged surgery
• Surgery performed on the wrong organ or side
• Organ puncture or cut
• Surgical utensils are left inside
• Anesthesia errors
• Failure to make the appropriate decision during a surgical emergency

These are simple mistakes that should never be made by a trained professional, especially when your life is on the line. But these are common errors that happen when a medical professional fails to give their undivided attention to their patient.

Categories of Surgery

There are three categories of surgery. A hospital’s negligence in diagnosing the appropriate kind of surgery necessary for their patient classifies as surgical medical malpractice.

• Emergency surgery is surgery that must be performed immediately. Even a twenty-minute delay can make the difference in determining if a patient lives or dies.
• Urgent surgery must be conducted within a couple of hours
• Elective surgery can be put off for a period of time to ensure that all procedures have been taken to best optimize the patient’s health

Common Surgeries Where Errors Occur

There are inherent risks in any surgical procedure. However, some are more prone to surgical malpractice than others:

• Cardiothoracic
• Gastric Bypass
• Child Birth
• Cosmetic Surgery
• Thoracic Surgery

Even though these are the most common surgeries for malpractice cases, you should not let this delay your decision to opt for surgery. Surgeons are trained professionals and the majority of surgeries do not result in personal injury or death.

Author: Jonathan Fashbaugh

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Fashbaugh