Any number of circumstances could land you in one of Kentucky’s hospital operating rooms. You might be one of many who have scheduled elective surgeries — perhaps cosmetically-based or because you’ve been told that a particular surgery may help improve your health in some way. Then again, you may undergo surgery in a much more urgent situation, such as those that often occur following motor vehicle accidents.
Regardless of what prompts your surgery, you, like all other Kentucky residents, have the right to reasonably assume that all the doctors, nurses and other licensed professionals caring for you will conduct themselves according to accepted safety standards and protocol regulations set forth in the medical industry. Sadly, surgical errors are one of the most common types of situations that often lead to medical malpractice litigation.
Beware of these frequently reported medical mistakes
You undoubtedly have to have a certain amount of trust for the surgeons and other medical staff members who perform your surgery and care for you during recovery. If a doctor breaches that trust by being negligent, it can cause you injury. The following list includes surgical errors that you’ll want to be aware of before undergoing any type of procedure:
- Many patients have been horrified to awaken from anesthesia, only to learn that their surgeons operated on the wrong body parts.
- You may also be at risk for a wrong-procedure error. Poor communication between medical staff members or deviations from protocol can cause a surgeon to make this kind of mistake.
- Always speak with the surgeon before your operation. Make sure you are the correct patient because not only have some doctors wrongly performed the procedures, some have operated on the wrong patients as well.
- Some analysts say that conducting a scheduled time-out before each surgery may help lower the risk for error. During a time-out, all those involved in a scheduled surgery are gathered together to discuss all important details, including name of patient, procedure to be done, specific body part, etc.
If you suffer because of a surgical error that was likely preventable, you may experience feelings of anger or even betrayal. Beyond any physical recovery necessary, it can take a long time to recover emotionally and financially from such experiences. It’s a good thing that are support networks in place to help, especially if you plan to seek legal recourse through the court system.