Doctors perform surgical procedures on their patients to improve their patients’ health. Though some procedures are elective many are done to fix significant problems present in the individuals’ bodies. Illinois residents go under the knife every day at hospitals and clinics throughout the state, and most people who have surgery emerge from their procedures better than they were before.
Unfortunately, surgeries are not always therapeutic to those who experience them. This is because from time to time, doctors and other health care providers commit errors during operations. From performing the wrong surgeries to leaving surgical tools inside patients, some end up with more pain and suffering after their operations.
One common form of surgical mistake is a wrong site surgery. When this happens, a doctor may actually do the correct procedure on the correct patient, but may perform the operation on the wrong part of the patient’s body. This can happen when an operation happens on the wrong side of a patient’s body, such as the repair of a rotator cuff on a person’s left arm, when they needed the surgery on their right arm.
Closing up surgical patients with surgical tools still in them is dangerous and can cause life-threatening complications. From infections to punctures, patients have suffered when gauze, scalpels and other medical devices were left in their bodies after doctors operated on them.
The examples discussed in this post are not exhaustive to all possible forms of harm that victims may endure from surgical mistakes. Surgical mistakes can constitute medical malpractice, and as such, readers with possible claims based on operation errors should consider speaking with their personal injury attorneys about their cases.