Surgery is one of those activities where never events —wrong-site, wrong-procedure, wrong-patient errors(WSPEs) are allowed to happen. But what happens when your surgeon fails to perform his due diligence and thus expose you to serious underlying safety problems?
In the case where you or anyone are a victim of a surgical error, before doing anything else, contact a Surgical error lawyer. If you are living in San Antonio visit this surgical error lawyer in San Antonio.
In this article, we will talk about the possible mistakes surgeons can make during surgery and why they make these life threatening errors and what you should in the case where you are the victim of a surgical error.
Table of Contents
Major Surgical Errors.
The following errors are dangerous and can cause a patient to die otherwise they’d need a prompt emergency treatment to reverse the damage!
- Wrong-site surgery errors are the ones that result from the operation of a wrong part of the body. A clearer picture is a case of a patient who had the left side of her vulva removed when the cancerous lesion was on the right, or a completely different body part.
- Wrong-person surgery errors are instances where the wrong patient got operated on maybe due to an unfortunate coincidence of sharing the same surname with the right person.
- Wrong-procedure surgery errors are cases where the wrong procedure was used in carrying the surgery on the patient. Cases where too much Anesthesia were used on a patient without being mindful of their allergies or where a surgical instrument or other foreign objects were left in the patient best describe this error.
It is noteworthy to understand that Universal Protocol was designed to bring an end to these seemingly dangerous errors but still they persist and findings reveal the causes of these errors are due to any of the following:
- Inadequate training or Quacks: If the surgeon lacks sufficient training or fails to continually update himself with new surgical practises long after he has finished training it means such surgeon is incompetent. Incompetence of surgeons is why many surgical malpractices exist as they lack the understanding of handling the procedure appropriately.
- Surgeons are often overworked and hence are fatigued. Without adequate rest surgeons are liable to make errors in judgment. Surgeries require absolute focus and attention, which is lacking when the mind and body are tired.
- Communication problems: According to reviews of the aforelisted surgical errors, it was discovered that communication issues are their underlying factors and this led to development of Universal Protocol. The impact of poor communication can be seen in instances where doctors, nurses or other professionals fail to fully document a patient’s allergies before pushing such a patient to the surgery room!
What To Do If You Are A Victim!
If you believe you have a malpractice claim, contact a surgical error attorney. It is not recommended to contact the surgeon or hospital who is at fault because they may try to settle you to avoid any litigation that can damage their reputation.
