Filing New York Medical Malpractice Suits for Operations Gone Wrong

A surgical procedure poses enough risks on a patient’s life; what more if the operation was done incorrectly? In an analysis made last year in the journal Patient Safety in Surgery, it was shown that 46 to 65 percent of adverse incidents in hospitals are surgery-related. Whether the physician failed to practice sufficient care, or performed the wrong surgery, these cases can be grounds for a New York medical malpractice claim, particularly if the operation made the patient’s condition worse or led to new health and medical problems.

Wrong Organ Removed

A recent case in California illustrates how a surgery can go wrong, when a urologist failed to remove a federal inmate’s diseased kidney, taking out the healthy one instead. As reported in the New York Post, the urologist who performed the surgery in the year 2012 relied only on memory to determine which kidney to remove, since he didn’t have the patient’s complete medical records. As a result of this mishap, the urologist was placed under probation and had to undergo a wrong-site surgery course, while the patient had another surgery to remove the diseased kidney. The hospital where the surgery was performed, meanwhile, was fined for not having the necessary CT scans on site on the day of the surgery.

Another instance of incorrect surgery happened in 2008, when a woman who had to undergo a routine hernia operation had her colon cut instead, leaving her with malfunctioning intestines and recurring abdominal infections. As a result, she had to stay in the hospital’s intensive care unit for 34 days, and amassed over a million dollars in medical bills. She filed a case against the doctors who performed the surgery to claim just compensation over the almost irreversible damage the operation caused her, and was recently granted $12 million in damages by the court.

Negligence

Suing a medical care provider for medical malpractice in NYC requires the help of trusted lawyers, such as those from The Law Offices of Joseph Lichtenstein. One of the grounds the plaintiff needs to prove is that the complications were indeed caused by negligence on the part of a doctor or other health care professionals. In the aforementioned medical malpractice cases, negligence was clearly present, causing health damages that otherwise could have been prevented, and resulting not only in physical and mental pain, but also additional medical costs and loss of income. Some cases may not be as clear-cut as those cited here, but you can be sure competent and dedicated lawyers will find means to help their clients prove their claims.

(Source: Surgeon disciplined for removing wrong kidney, New York Post, December 4, 2014)