New York Surgical Error Attorney

The first step in discovering if you have a medical malpractice claim is to verify that the harm occurred because someone’s standard of care fell below the reasonable level — qualifying as legal “negligence.” You must show that your injuries happened because of negligence, not as an expected potential result of the surgery. The following are common examples of medical malpractice, not foreseeable complications:

• Wrong-site, wrong-patient, wrong-procedure surgery: This type of gross negligence should never occur at any hospital. Surgeons may make these errors from lack of communication or pure carelessness.
• Nicking an artery or injuring a nerve: These injuries can point to surgical incompetence or carelessness. Reasonable and prudent surgeons are able to avoid these accidents through due care.
• Anesthesia error: Too little anesthesia can lead to the patient suffering “anesthesia awareness” during surgery. Too much can cause brain damage from lack of oxygen. The anesthesiologist must administer the substance with the utmost professional care.
• Leaving behind a surgical instrument: Surgeons may be too quick to close up the body cavity upon completion of the operation, leaving behind foreign objects. These can cause serious health complications later on.
• Infection from unsanitary tools: Surgery requires absolute sanitation at every stage. Unsanitary hospitals or equipment can lead to serious infections that compromise the patient’s recovery.

Every surgery comes with risks. Your surgeon will have you sign a waiver that states you accept the risks as your doctor has explained them to you prior to surgery. This waiver protects the surgeon and facility from liability in the event of complications that may arise as a result of the procedure. This waiver does not, however, apply in adverse events that occur because of someone’s negligence.