When should you call a surgical malpractice attorney?
Surgical malpractice refers to negligent, improper, or sometimes illegal activity conducted by surgeons, registered nurses, anesthesiologists, medical students, residents or any medical professionals during surgery. While institutions and individuals can cause surgical errors, surgical malpractice is usually the fault of an individual practitioner.
Surgical errors can happen in multiple ways; some are more harmful than others, and in most cases, the damages the patients have to endure are often the result of negligence from medical professionals. Surgical malpractice often results in additional medical costs, pain and suffering and can even affect your quality of life: this is why you should hold the negligent party accountable.
Here are 4 situations when you should call surgical malpractice attorneys.
If The Surgeon Operated On The Wrong Site
Wrong-site surgeries are some of the most grievous forms of surgical malpractice. Besides the damaging and irreversible consequence of the first surgery, the patient still has to go through a second surgery on the affected area. These surgical errors are completely preventable, and the negligible parties should be held accountable for causing patients so much pain and suffering. Urgently consult with surgical malpractice attorneys if your surgeon operated on the wrong part of your body.
If You Were Injured During Surgery
Sometimes, a surgeon can carry out an operation in a reckless manner that harms the patient. During surgery, a surgeon can mismanage anesthesia, tear muscle or nerve fibers, damage internal organs, leave surgical objects inside your body, or disregard vital signs. An injury during surgery may occur on top of another surgical error, or it may happen in an otherwise flawless surgery. Patients in both scenarios can still seek legal redress for the harm caused.
When Your Plastic Surgery Was Botched
A botched plastic surgery can occur during the operation and show immediately after or later. Botched plastic surgeries can result in disfigurement, nerve damage, infections, blood clots or excessive scarring. In most cases, they are caused by improperly trained or negligent surgeons. Since plastic surgery is a field that is not covered by most insurance policies, the field has attracted several uncertified or unqualified surgeons that are just looking to cash in on a trending surgical field. Surgical malpractice attorneys will help you hold the plastic surgeon accountable.
If You Had An Incorrect Operation
An incorrect surgery is a surgical operation that was unnecessary or carried out incorrectly. Patients still have to recover from the procedure that did not contribute to healing their underlying condition and might even leave them in a far worse condition overall. One of the most painful scenarios surgical malpractice attorneys have helped clients get compensation for is mistaken amputations, where doctors remove some body parts unnecessarily. Such cases may be due to a bad diagnosis that required an amputation that wasn’t necessary or, other times because the surgeon went into an operation and amputated the wrong leg.
Consult Surgical Malpractice Attorneys
If you or your loved one has experienced any of these malpractices, it is important to contact a surgical malpractice attorney as soon as possible. No matter how apparent or shocking the negligence is, the burden of proof for surgical malpractices is always on a patient’s legal team. Fortunately, experienced attorneys will show what the surgeon could have done differently or failed to do and the direct relationship of the damage with the surgical error.
