What Are The Most Common Surgical Errors & Their Causes?

Any time you are sedated for a surgical procedure, you are in a vulnerable situation. Not only are you unconscious or at least unaware of what is happening, but you are nearly unquestioningly trusting your medical team’s judgment and skill to keep you alive and healthy. If you have been the victim of a surgical error, you may benefit from speaking with a Portland medical malpractice lawyer at Paulson Coletti Trial Attorneys PC. They can discuss your options for compensation.

Surgeons are human. They may excel in their work, but that does not mean they are infallible. They, like all of us, can still make mistakes. Long hours, too many surgeries, poor communication, or sloppy accountability for policy violations can create a perfect storm that leads to life-changing surgical errors.

What is an Oregon Surgical Error?

Surgical errors are an unfortunate part of medical care sometimes. Statistically, they are going to occur at some point because mistakes will be made. An article discussing the prevention of surgical errors defines a surgical error as an unintentional and unintended injury that occurs during the operation. The injury is not part of the known and acceptable risks of surgery and may have been avoided by following procedure-specific training or protocol. These are also separate from other types of medical errors. A surgical error attorney in Portland can help you deal with the aftermath of this kind of devastating mistake.

Retained Surgical Instrument

Surgeons and the medical team can use a variety of instruments and materials during surgery. These may consist of metal or plastic instruments, sterile packaging, sponges or towels, or other materials. In Oregon hospitals, procedures are in place to track what is used for safety and billing purposes. This means if an item is left in someone’s body after surgery, this is due to a failure to follow procedure.

The incidence of this happening is believed to be relatively rare. In one study investigating five hospitals, reports of retained items occurred in less than 1% of cases. Though they are rare, the effects of a retained item can be significant, including pain, signs of sepsis, readmission to the hospital, and additional surgery.

Operating on the Wrong Patient

Though it sounds like something that would happen in a TV show, one of the more common surgical errors is performing an operation on the wrong individual or performing the wrong surgery. The patient safety network reported on a wrong patient case study explaining that a patient underwent an invasive cardiac surgery that was supposed to be for another patient with a similar last name.

These errors are also relatively rare, particularly given the safety standards in place and the utilization of hospital ID tags and wristbands to confirm the patient’s identity. However, these mistakes happen when people do not follow facility procedures and do not communicate effectively. If a surgeon performs several surgeries a day, they may become desensitized to the severity of the situation and make a mistake.

Operating on the Wrong Site or Side

Sometimes, a medical team will have the correct patient but may operate on the incorrect side of the body or the wrong area. An example of incorrect area operations is spinal surgery, where the surgeon may operate on the wrong part of the spine. In an example of the wrong side, the Patient Safety Network discusses a report of a woman who had vulvar cancer on the left vulva, but the right vulva was removed. This kind of amputation injury can result in significant hardship and suffering for the patient.

In this particular situation, the error occurred because the lead surgeon on the case misremembered which side the biopsy was taken from and redirected a trainee who had read the chart. This is an example, yet again, of the importance of following procedure and being well informed as to the needs of each specific patient and surgery.

Under or Overdosing Anesthesia

The anesthesiologist has an incredibly important job that is also very precise in its needs. If the calculations are incorrect, it may cause significant damage. If an anesthesiologist administers too much of a sedative drug, it may cause depressed respiration, blood pressure problems, and, in severe cases, even brain damage. You may benefit from consulting a Paulson Coletti brain injury lawyer in cases like this.

On the other side, providing anesthesia that is not adequate for the patient can cause it not to work fully.  When this happens, it is known as intraoperative and anesthesia awareness. This can result in the patient’s awareness and memory of the operation, including pain and paralysis. This may be attributed to factors beyond the physician’s control but may also be due to inadequate given the patient’s specific medical history, weight, or even a mixture of medications that may have been given before the surgery.

Surgical Errors May Qualify as Malpractice

True surgical errors result from a member of your medical team’s failure to follow policy or procedure appropriately. You would need to establish medical negligence to establish a medical malpractice case. This requires three facts to be true:

• Your provider has a duty of care: When you have an established relationship with your provider, meaning they have treated you, this generally establishes that relationship and their duty to you.
• Their action caused injury: You must establish that their mistake caused you harm
• If not for their action, you would not have been injured

A surgical error, such as operating on the wrong site or patient, performing the wrong procedure, or leaving surgical instruments inside the body, can be a pretty clear instance of negligence. In some instances, insurers have sent memos stating they will not pay for surgeries completed in error because they are not determined to be necessary procedures.

The Aftermath of Surgical Errors

When someone undergoes surgery, it is generally because there are no other options and, without it, you will lose significant quality of life or your life itself. The trauma of putting your entire life in someone’s hands and trusting them to take care of you with kindness, diligence, and precision only to find that they made a preventable mistake is significant. Unfortunately, people may have to undergo surgery again to correct the issue, which can exacerbate the already present anxiety.

Don’t let someone else’s negligence stop you from living your life and recovering the compensation you deserve. Contact the lawyers at Paulson Coletti Trial Attorneys PC for assistance.