5 Most Common Operating Room Errors
Undergoing surgery can be a very stressful situation for a patient, especially considering the kind of surgery that is involved. Patients put their trust in their surgeon/doctor and their staff to carry out a successful, professional surgery. When a doctor injures a patient in an operating room error, the results can be devastating. Below are the five most common operating room errors:
Wrong-Patient Surgery
Wrong-patient surgery occurs when a surgical procedure is performed on a patient who does not need the surgery or receives a surgical procedure meant for another person. Wrong-patient surgery falls under a category of “never events” – a description used for surgical and medical errors that should never occur under any circumstances. This operating room error is often the result of negligence on behalf of the surgeon or a clerical error. Wrong-patient surgery can often injure a patient and lead to expensive corrective surgery to undo.
Wrong-Site Surgery
Before a surgeon begins operating on a patient, they will often have a detailed report on where to perform. When a surgeon is rushing or overlooks the details, they could perform surgery on the wrong body part altogether. This often occurs with hands, feet, legs, lungs, kidneys, and other body parts.
Nerve Damage
A wrong move on the part of a surgeon could lead to the unintentional damage of surrounding nerves on a patient’s body. Damage to these nerves could result in chronic pain, permanent or partial disability, and more.
Anesthesia Errors
Another for the “never event” category, anesthesia errors are extremely common for a variety of reasons. Anesthesia is administered as one or various drugs mixed together to sedate a patient for surgery. There is a lot of room of errors with anesthesia. Administering too much or too little, administering a drug or drugs that conflict’s with a patient’s allergies, and more could severely harm or kill a patient.
Objects Left Behind
Many small objects are used during surgical procedures. A surgeon or doctor could overlook some of these smaller objects when finishing a surgery and could leave behind gauze, scalpel tips, pads, thread, and other small objects. These items that are left behind can cause intense pain, organ failure, infection, and in some cases, death.
The issues listed above should never occur, but when they do, the results are devastating. If you or a loved one has suffered an injury due to an operating room error, contact the law offices of Berger and Lagnese today to schedule your case consultation.