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The most common surgical errors can leave people disabled

On Behalf of | Dec 19, 2019 | Medical Malpractice

The thought of needing surgery is often enough to scare the average person. Even though it is well-known that doctors use anesthesia to prevent any sensation of pain during surgery, many people have a deep-set fear of going under the knife. It turns out that statistical evidence validates that fear.

Doctors make major mistakes in surgery far more frequently than you might imagine. In fact, so-called never events, medical mistakes so drastic that they should literally never happen, occur dozens of times every week across the country. Each of these mistakes is so severe that it can lead to permanent disability for the victim of the surgical mistake.

Wrong-site operations and incorrect procedures are major risks

It has become common practice for surgeons to have a patient mark the surgical site with a marker themselves prior to receiving anesthesia. The reason people do this is that doctors all too often make the mistake where they perform a procedure on the wrong part of the body, or potentially amputate the wrong limb. That happens 20 times every week in the United States. Another 20 patients every week fall victim to surgeons who perform the completely wrong procedure on them.

Surgeons leaving something behind is more than a sitcom joke

Believe it or not, the most common surgical mistake is for an operation to end with a foreign object still inside a patient’s body, happening 40 times a week.

While it might not be the surgeon’s wristwatch or a piece of theater candy, sponges, surgical tools and gauze could all get left in an incision, potentially increasing the risk for secondary injury or infection. Anyone who experiences one of these major surgical mistakes will likely have grounds to bring a medical malpractice claim against the doctor or the hospital involved.