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Surgical Errors

Every time a person must have surgery there are risks of medical malpractice. Medical Malpractice claims frequently arise from surgical errors, some of which happen before surgery and others which occur during the surgical procedure itself.

Personal injury cases could be a consequence of numerous circumstances that may arise while on the operating room table that could lead to a faulty or flawed surgical performance. Most errors are known as "wrong site" operations, meaning that the operation took place in the wrong organ or limb, on the wrong side of the body or the wrong procedure on the correct body part. Below are examples of other types of errors that can occur on an operating table:

• Use of unsanitary surgical instruments
• Incorrect incision
• Organ puncture or perforation
• Delayed surgery
• Prolonged surgery

Other errors can occur as far back as the pre-operative stage of the surgery, when a doctor examines the patient and determines that surgery is the most appropriate course of action. Conversely, some surgical procedures may be unnecessary. A study conducted in the late 1980s found that as many as 30 percent of controversial surgeries were not necessary.

Plastic or cosmetic surgery is another area where surgical errors are common. In these cases, the surgery may not only fail to produce the desired cosmetic results, but the surgical errors may leave the patient with serious, permanent physical ailments from which they did not suffer before the surgery. Silicone breast implants are perhaps the most publicized cases in point, though there are many other examples of surgical errors arising from cosmetic surgery.

Personal injury cases due to surgical errors are often very complicated and should be handled by an experienced legal team. There is some amount of risk in all surgeries; however, this risk should not be exacerbated by negligent mistakes that could have been prevented. If you suspect you or someone you love has been harmed by a surgical error, please contact a Pennsylvania surgical errors attorney at Haggerty & Silverman for a free consultation.

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