Surgical Errors
home 
Surgical Errors
Surgical Errors 
All surgeons have a duty to act within the scope of the accepted standard of care expected of a reasonably competent surgeon, in similar circumstances, and in the same area of surgery. If your surgeon’s conduct fails to meet these standards and you suffer injury as a result of this negligence, you can claim compensation in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Causes of surgical errors:
- Surgical errors often occur as a result of lack of sleep, poor preoperative planning, or simple oversight and incompetence.
- Errors can occur due to miscommunication, for example the nurse incorrectly marks the wrong site for surgery and the surgeon removes the wrong organ.
- Or, the surgeon is misinformed about the patient’s reaction to certain drugs or anesthetic.
- Failure to follow proper post-operative procedure to account for all surgical equipment often leads to equipment being left behind in the patient.
- Failure to use properly sterilized instruments can lead to infections and further complications.
- In some cases the patient suffers nerve damage or damage to the surrounding tissue. This can be accidental or due to the surgeon’s incompetence to perform the particular procedure.
- It has even happened that the surgery is performed on the wrong patient!
When can you claim compensation?
If your surgeon performing his duty properly could have avoided the injury, and you suffered damages as a result, you have the legal right to claim compensation. Errors will almost always require follow-up procedures to correct the error, or follow-up treatment of the resulting harm. Patients have to take even more time off work, often losing wages. The error can lead to even higher medical bills, and in some cases your health or body may never be the same as before the error occurred.
It is important to remember that all surgeries have inherent risks. Your doctor should discuss these risks with you before the surgery and you will be required to sign a consent form, stating that you understand the risks. Medical negligence and errors, such as the ones mentioned above, go beyond these inherent risks and the surgeon cannot escape liability by you signing the consent form.
Proving negligence
Negligence is not always as apparent and easy to prove as in the examples mentioned above. It can be very complex to establish that the surgeon failed to exercise reasonable care. The test will be:
- What is the medical standard of care for a reasonably skilled surgeon in the same field of surgery, under similar circumstances?
- Once you’ve established that standard, you need to prove that your surgeon failed to meet that standard.
- Similar to all other medical malpractice cases you must also prove causation and actual harm.
This type of lawsuit is complex from a legal and a medical viewpoint. You need legal assistance from a lawyer with knowledge in both fields, and experience in medical malpractice cases. You need a lawyer who understands surgical procedures and has the knowledge to examine medical records and proceed with your case in such a way that you will receive the best compensation you can get under the circumstances. Our firm offers both knowledge and experience to assist you with your case.