If you or your loved one, were the victim of a surgical error in a Miami hospital, it is important to know that you may be able to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.
There are situations in which a physician or other medical professionals can be negligent and cause:
- adverse events
- injury
- or illness
Patients who require surgery are potentially vulnerable and inevitably exposed to important risks. Some of these can be avoided if the procedure is performed with the highest care and attention.
What Kind of Surgical Errors Can Be Considered Medical Malpractice?
Surgical errors are preventable errors made during surgery or in the post or preoperative setting. The most common surgical errors are as follows:
- Negligence during anesthesia.
- Negligence in manipulating surgical tools. Medical professionals can be negligent in manipulating surgical tools, causing injuries, for example, injuring a nerve during surgery.
- Cutting the wrong limb or taking out organs from the wrong patient.
- Performing surgery on the wrong body part. For example, the doctor read a patient's medical file incorrectly and ended up operating the wrong member or the wrong body part.
- Forgetting medical instruments or surgical accessories inside a patient's body. For example, the bandage is the medical accessory that is most often left inside a patient's body, but there are cases when the scalpel was left inside someone's body.
- Treatment delays and misinterpretation of laboratory results. Sometimes the doctor can read the lab results wrong and make an incorrect diagnosis or prescribe the wrong treatment, the wrong medication, or dosage.
- Failing to get informed consent or not mentioning all the surgical risks before the procedure. Every surgical procedure involves risks that have to be disclosed by the doctor.
- Failing to create a surgical plan and ignoring the patient's medical history. Some people are allergic to certain sedatives. Usually, this is mentioned in a patient's file. Unfortunately, in some cases, doctors ignore this information and the patient is injured.
- Using counterfeit surgery hardware on patients.
- Missing complications or infection post-surgery that leads to persistent back pain, pressure ulcers, or staph infections.
People injured during surgical procedures may require care and have expenses or losses throughout their lifetime, such as:
- Various medical services
- Rehabilitation expenses
- Medical equipment
- Lost wages and the potential to earn them
- A part-time or full-time attendant, possibly a housekeeper
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of consortium
- Emotional distress
If you have been the victim of a medical or surgical error, you may be able to recover compensation for your damages by filing a malpractice lawsuit. At The Law Offices of Sean M. Cleary, we work with medical experts to get an accurate estimation of your damages. You should know that medical malpractice has a short statute of limitations of only two years.
However, you will need to prove that the injuries and damages you suffered were the results of a breach of the duty of care related to your surgical procedure.
How Can a Miami Medical Malpractice Attorney Help With Your Claim?
Oftentimes, medical professionals can fall below or may deviate from the appropriate standard of care and cause serious injuries to patients. These injuries can leave patients unable to care for themselves, with lifelong medical debt and poor quality of life.
Contact the Miami based The Law Offices of Sean M. Cleary for expert representation in your malpractice case based on years of experience and numerous successful medical malpractice cases.
Our attorney can guide and help you through the complex legal process of filing a surgery malpractice claim. For a free consultation, call our office today.