Surgeons receive years of training to prevent mistakes that may harm a patient. This is because some of these mistakes can lead the victim to suffer severe or fatal harm. Many of these surgical errors are considered medical “never events,” a term coined by Ken Kizer, former CEO of the National Quality Forum, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving healthcare. “Never events” are medical errors that are clearly harmful, serious, and preventable–in other words, medical malpractice.
If you or a loved one suffered preventable harm from an avoidable surgical mistake, you may have a personal injury claim and be entitled to compensation, and a New York medical malpractice lawyer from Buttafuoco & Associates can help.
What are Surgical Never Events?
According to the Patient Safety Network, there is a list of 29 “never events” in seven categories, and surgical never events include:
- Wrong-Site: when surgery is performed on the wrong body part
- Wrong-Patient: when surgery is performed on the wrong patient.
- Wrong-Procedure: when the wrong procedure is performed on a patient.
- Foreign Object Left in Body: when the surgeon leaves an object, such as a sponge or tool, in a patient after surgery unintentionally.
According to research from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, surgical never events occur over 4,000 times a year.
The study estimated that every week in the United States:
- Wrong site surgeries occur 20 times
- Wrong patient procedures occur 20 times
- Surgeons leave foreign objects inside patients 39 times
Needless to say, this level of negligence is unacceptable and, more importantly, dangerous. If you believe your surgeon has committed medical malpractice, an attorney at Buttafuoco & Associates can provide a free case review to help you understand your rights.
Understanding Types of Surgical Errors and How They Happen
Wrong-Site
Wrong part or wrong site surgeries are common on symmetrical parts of the body, sometimes called wrong-part or wrong-side. For example, a man getting a cancerous testicle removed might wake up to find an error that led to the removal of the healthy testicle. Other wrong site problem areas include the spine, arms, and legs. When a surgical team fails to double check patient records and mark the proper surgery area with an ink mark, these errors might occur.
Wrong-Patient
Wrong patient surgery is a common mistake between patients with similar names. A patient mix-up can cause patients to undergo a potentially harmful procedure while never getting the procedure they needed. This type of surgical error can negatively affect two patients instead of just one.
Wrong-Procedure
Wrong procedure errors are similar to and often go hand-in-hand with wrong patient surgery. Miscommunication of patient records or surgical assignments can lead to the performance of an incorrect procedure on a patient.
Foreign Object Left in the Body
During surgery, the surgical team may use hundreds of pieces of equipment. Sponges are one of the most common objects surgeons leave in the body following a surgical procedure. Surgeons have also left metal clamps inside patients. Most patients do not discover these errors until much later when they cause pain or show up on an imaging scan.
Complications of Surgical Errors
Wrong-site, wrong-patient, and wrong-procedure surgical errors (often abbreviated as WSPEs) can cause:
- The patient to require a second procedure.
- Irreversible damage (e.g., wrong site amputations, scars, etc.)
- A delay in receiving the correct procedure. This can be fatal for patients in dire need of a certain operation.
Foreign objects left in the body might not show any obvious signs of injury, and many are benign for years. Some patients report never knowing about a sponge in their body until it shows up in an x-ray. Other patients might complain of internal pain and inflammation as the body attacks the foreign object.
Filing a Claim for Surgical Errors
With the appropriate care before, during, and after surgery, these errors are 100 percent preventable, meaning that they are often a case of medical negligence. A medical malpractice attorney serving New York can help you gather the key evidence and bring in expert witnesses to testify on what your surgical team did wrong.
The evidence for a surgical error must show what procedure the patient should have undergone, what happened, and the outcome of the error. Even if you do not have severe negative effects from a foreign object, you may be entitled to damages covering the cost of removal and mental anguish over the error. Depending on the damage done by a WSPE event, you might be entitled to long-term compensation for disability and damages related to loss of quality of life. Buttafuoco & Associates helps injured New Yorkers recover the compensation they deserve.
If you suffered a surgical never event or lost a loved one due to a surgeon’s error, contact us at 1-800-NOW-HURT to schedule a free case review.