How to Sue Over Surgery Complications

Being a medical malpractice attorney is especially important to me because I’m a registered nurse. I have experience in the high-paced, high-stakes environment of a hospital ER, and I know how devastating a single moment of negligence can be to a patient.

There are no guarantees with surgery, and hospitals and surgery centers require patients to sign a number of wavers and other paperwork prior to their procedures. But preventable surgical errors constitute medical malpractice and you can file a lawsuit over them. Often times, patients don’t realize an error or negligence occurred until they face surgical complications such as infections, shock, hemorrhage, stroke, and the necessity for another surgery.

Because of my medical experience, I can instantly understand the type of surgery you had and what your recovery should have looked like. I can also determine if you received substandard care and if surgical errors and negligence occurred.

In the courtroom, it isn’t appropriate for me to share my medical background because my role there is to be your legal representative. Instead, I secure the expert testimony of healthcare professionals to explain your condition, complications, and other medical information to the court.

Common types of surgical errors include:

Anesthesia errors
Performing the wrong or an unnecessary surgery
Delaying a necessary surgery
Conducting surgery on the wrong location of the body
Damaging internal organs or nerves
Leaving surgical tools inside the body
Hospital-acquired infections (HAI)

If you’ve experienced a surgery complication and want to sue the healthcare professional or institution whose negligence caused you harm, you’ll first you’ll need to prove 3 things:

What the standard of care was for your situation
How the medical professional or facility deviated from that standard of care,
That the substandard level of care resulted in your injury.

The standard of care is what another, reasonable healthcare professional would have done in the same situation. For example, a reasonable surgeon would have counted all the sponges and surgical instruments used during the surgery to ensure none were left inside your body. If your surgeon did not do so and left a tool inside your body, necessitating another surgery and more time spent in the hospital and recovering, they failed to meet the standard of care and are liable for their actions or, in this case, inactions.

Without a medical background, you may not be sure of what exactly happened to you or if negligence was involved. This is why I offer free consultations. If you were harmed, I want you to understand how and who can be held liable for it.

I recently won a $9 million lawsuit filed on behalf of a woman whose father died because of a surgical error. Prior to his surgery to remove a polyp in a difficult-to-reach location of his colon, various forms of imagery should have been taken to help the surgeons pinpoint the polyp’s location, as well as those of other masses, organs, and major blood vessels. They were to review this information before the surgery and develop a plan for how to reach the polyp and remove it safely. However, the surgeons failed to do so, and during the surgery they cut an artery, interrupting blood flow to the small intestine. This error resulted in 7 additional surgeries, 18 days in intensive care, immense pain, suffering, and ultimately the man’s death.

Lawsuits can’t bring a loved one back or undo the harm done to your health by another’s negligence. However, we place a great deal of trust in our healthcare providers, and when that trust is broken, it’s only right that our providers are held accountable. As with my client in our recent case, a lawsuit is how the negligent medical provider or institution is held accountable for the harm they caused. A lawsuit also helps lessen the impact of the error on your life by securing compensation for the economic damages you endured (your medical bills, lost wages, and continued medical care), as well as your non-economic damages (suffering, pain, emotional distress, and time apart from your family.

To set up your free consultation about your surgical error lawsuit, call my office today.