Last Updated on March 17, 2020 by Michelle Wan
When you think surgery, you think, yes, there can be some risk involved. You are being put under anesthesia; but you trust your doctors who are trained to make the right decisions on your behalf. It is what they went to school for right?
According to a report by medical liability insurer Coverys, 17 percent of surgical malpractice claims are orthopedic surgery, 8 percent are neurosurgery and 22 percent are general surgery. Reports also suggest that surgeons are a major factor in medical malpractice claims. 2,579 claims involved surgeon performance issues. The remainder of the claims were from the decision making prior to surgery.
Factors include: the surgeon having a lack of technical skill, failure in clinical judgement or communication, a foreign body left inside the patient, surgery performed on the wrong patient or the wrong surgical area and having unnecessary surgery.
When reading this, I was alarmed at how much is going on that we may not be aware of. We place our lives in the hands of these doctors; we must sign a consent form. As those of you know when having surgery, there is a laundry list of things we must sign. Now that being said, this doesn’t mean that surgery is without risk. One of the preventable risks is a surgeon being careless or distracted. Many surgery errors are preventable. Failure to follow the standard of care to a patient is a violation to you, the patient!
If you have any concerns that you or a family member experienced a surgical error, death from surgery, or the wrong surgery was performed, please let Thomas & Wan, LLP help you today. We are here to answer all your questions and give you piece of mind in this very trying time. Please call us today.
