Each year millions of Americans are faced with undergoing some type of surgical procedure, either by choice or necessity.  Of course, all surgery comes with risks, however when surgical errors are committed at the hand of a negligent doctor, the patient can be faced with a new set of problems.  And these mistakes are more common than you might realize.  As many as 98,000 deaths occur annually in the United States due to surgical errors.  Factor in the additional non-fatal mistakes, which often result in life changing consequences like paralysis or permanent disability, and there is quite a cause for concern.
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There are several factors that can cause a surgical error.  Typically they involve:

• Fatigue
• Miscommunication
• Inattentiveness
• Poor/illegible handwriting
• Recklessness

Any of these factors contain the potential to result in a surgical error, such as:

• Wrong site surgery
• Wrong patient surgery
• Incorrect incision

And the consequences of surgical errors for the patient often include:

• Poor surgical results
• Tissue, organ and/or nerve damage
• Scarring
• Disfigurement
• Multiple corrective surgeries
• Infection
• Internal bleeding
• Death

Of course, there are a great number of other scenarios in which a surgeon’s error can occur, causing irreversable and devastating consequences to the patient.  Surgeon’s must be held accountable for the delicate work they perform and their behavior in the operating room.  Victims of surgical errors have the legal right to compensation for their damages, both financial and emotional.  Contact a medical attorney to find out how.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Medical Malpractice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.