Surgical errors can cause serious harm to victims, leaving them with significant physical, emotional, and financial damages. As a result, medical malpractice victims should understand their legal options. A medical malpractice claim for damages is a legal remedy that may allow a victim to recover compensation for his or her damages while at the same time providing accountability.
Surgical errors are a type of medical malpractice for which injured victims and their families may be able to recover compensation for their physical, financial and emotional damages through a medical malpractice claim for damages. More than 4,000 preventable surgical errors occur every year. Researchers refer to them as “never events” because they should never occur. Examples of never events can include wrong-site surgeries or leaving a surgical sponge in the patient.
Between 1990 and 2010, never events occurred about 10,000 times. Researchers estimate that each week surgeons leave foreign objects in patients, such as sponges or towels, 39 times. Those researchers also found that doctors perform the wrong procedure on a patient 20 times per week and operate on the wrong site of the patient’s body 20 times. Each of these never events can result in serious harm to victims so that their lives are forever changed.
A medical malpractice claim for damages can be brought against a negligent doctor or other medical care professional when their negligent care or treatment has caused harm to a patient. However, medical malpractice claims are often hotly contested, which means that victims need to be prepared to make aggressive legal arguments in support of their position. Fortunately, these medical malpractice victims have the opportunity to seek out legal assistance before moving forward with a claim.
