Errors During Surgery Frequent Medical Malpractice

by Lynn Fugaro

Each year in the United States, the number of mistakes make by medical professionals during surgery is alarmingly high. Sadly, many, if not all, of these surgical errors could have been avoided. Some surgical mistakes are just outrageous to even believe, such as performing surgery at the wrong site (wrong leg, arm etc.) or, worse, amputating the wrong limb altogether, which does actually happen.

When we enter an operating room as a patient, our lives are in the hands of the surgeon and the operating room team, and we trust them to perform our surgery without making errors, especially ones as egregious as operating on the wrong limb or removing the wrong part/area of the body.

How Common Is It?

Approximately 98,000 hospital patients die each year as a result of medical malpractice involving surgical errors by surgeons and others in the operating room. Medical negligence/malpractice is defined as a medical professional's "failure to exercise the skill, care, and prudence necessary to prevent causing a patient injury or illness." Non-fatal surgical errors occur just as frequently and often result in serious injuries such as paralysis and other permanent disabilities.

When we sign consent forms allowing our surgeons to operate, we tend to believe our surgeon has performed this procedure hundreds, maybe thousands, of times and is competent enough to perform the entire procedure without error. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Surgical errors are sometimes the most shocking of medical malpractice mistakes and include leaving surgical instruments inside patients during surgery, operating on the wrong site, and sometimes even operating on the wrong patient altogether.

There are many contributing factors to surgical errors including:

· Surgeon fatigue
· Inattentiveness
· Miscommunication amongst surgical staff
· Poor handwriting in patient charts
· Failure to take proper patient medical history
· Failure to note all drug allergies

Because the consequences of surgical errors are so serious, the medical costs involved in "fixing" those errors are extremely high. Patients may have to pay for multiple surgeries to correct the problem; there may be nerve/organ damage; infection; and scarring. The emotional toll of being the victim of a surgical mistake is profound and some patients never recover from their surgeon's grave mistake.

There have been some efforts to correct the growing problem of surgical errors. Surgical teams are encouraged to have a last minute "meeting" in the OR to make sure the correct site is being prepped and to make sure it is, indeed, the right patient being prepped for surgery. Surgeons in some states have also been ordered to mark a black X on the correct surgery site to avoid wrong site surgeries. Some surgeons do not like to participate in these last minute meetings and some don't use the black X to mark the surgery site as they feel they are incapable of making such an error.


About the Author
If you or a loved one has suffered or died due to medical negligence, please visit the website of experienced medical negligence attorney Marc Whitehead & Associates, serving clients in Houston, Baytown, Galveston, Sugar Land and Humble, Texas.