San Diego Medical Malpractice Lawyers, Helping Victims of Surgical Errors

Common Surgical Mistakes

Even though most who read a list of common surgical errors are shocked at what they see, the fact is that many of these mistakes are easily preventable.  Below is a look at a few surgical errors that occur relatively often.

• Surgery on wrong body part – Many surgical errors involve performing a surgery on the wrong body part.  For instance, some patients have had the wrong limb amputated, have had surgery performed on the wrong leg or arm and other breathtaking mistakes that seemingly should never occur.
• Leaving instruments inside the patient – Surgeons are generally interested in closing the surgical wound on a patient as quickly as possible after their work is done to protect the patient from any bacteria in the air.  Unfortunately, this leads to a surprising number of incidents where surgical instruments and sponges are left inside the body of the patient, only to have that patient suffer from excruciating pain until the object is removed.
• Failure to properly close the surgical wound – Despite the priority that’s placed on closing a surgical wound quickly, there are still cases where the wound is not closed properly.  When internal organs and tissues are exposed to the open air for too long or tissue that was separated for the surgery is not properly repaired, it leads to a high probability of infections.

Steps and Remedies for Victims of Surgical Errors

Generally, the step that immediately becomes necessary after a surgical error is additional surgery to correct the mistake that was made.  This necessary step involves more risk, more pain, more recovery time and more medical bills.  As a result, those who have suffered from surgical errors have legal rights and options at their disposal including the filing of a California medical malpractice lawsuit to recapture these costs.

If you or someone you love has suffered in this manner, seek the help of San Diego medical malpractice lawyers who have been holding those responsible for the harm caused by surgical errors for many years.  Contact Mitchell | Gilleon today to schedule a free initial consultation.