Is Wrong-Site Surgery Medical Malpractice?
Wrong-site surgery is a preventable error that can cause permanent injury.
When a patient undergoes a surgical procedure, numerous complications can occur, such as unnecessary surgeries or improperly performing a procedure. Wrong-site surgery (WSS) is a preventable error that can cause permanent injury to a victim. If you or a loved one have suffered injuries due to wrong-site surgery, work with the medical malpractice attorneys at The Law Offices of Cardaro & Peek .
What is Wrong-Site Surgery?
An easy example is when a patient’s left arm gets amputated when it should have been the right arm, but WSS encompasses a variety of surgical error scenarios. These errors include surgery performed on the wrong side or site of the body, wrong surgical procedure performed, and surgery performed on the wrong patient. This encompasses procedures performed in settings other than the operating room, such as a special procedures unit, an endoscopy unit, and an interventional radiology suite. WSS is also defined as a “sentinel event,” which is an unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physical or psychological injuries, or the risk thereof.
When Do Surgical Errors and Oversights Occur?
Following pre-surgery protocols can help eliminate the likelihood of a wrong-site surgical error from happening. Healthcare professionals should do their due diligence to avoid miscommunications, misunderstandings, and missing documentation. Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence determined errors leading to WSSs can occur in multiple stages: during scheduling and pre-op, and within the operating room and organizational culture of the healthcare facility.
Who is Potentially Liable?
When establishing causation for a medical malpractice claim , your legal team will identify the negligent party that breached the duty of care owed to the victim, show that the breach led to the WSS, and the WSS caused injury. In many cases of wrong-site surgery, multiple people could have failed to act competently and carefully, and as a result, the patient suffers. The surgeon or surgical team carrying out the procedure could be at fault, but mistakes made by nurses, prep staff, anesthesiologists, and others could have played a role in the surgical errors that took place. Due to the complex nature of WSS claims, it is important to have an experienced team of experts examine your case.
Contact The Law Offices of Cardaro & Peek, LLC Today
Do you believe that you or your loved one has suffered as a result of medical malpractice or medical neglect? You need to talk to an experienced team of local lawyers today.
The lawyers at Cardaro & Peek, LLC have the experience and resources necessary to investigate and litigate all types of medical claims throughout Maryland and Washington D.C. Cardaro & Peek, LLC has medical personnel on staff and has access to nationally recognized, board-certified physicians and other experts, to assist in the investigation, analysis, and prosecution of all types of medical malpractice claims. If you or a loved one have experienced malpractice, give us a call at 410-752-6166. Please visit our website www.cardarolaw.com and follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and LinkedIn for more information.
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