The field of medicine is more advanced than it’s ever been. We have more information, options and accessibility regarding the diagnosing and treating of countless medical conditions. Considering all the resources available, it can be easy to think that mistakes or errors that happen in the hospital room typically involve things like sophisticated machinery or complex medication interactions.
However, the unfortunate truth is thousands of medical mistakes occur every year due to an error that is so shocking and preventable it should never happen. These types of mistakes are referred to as “never events” and sadly, many of them stem from surgical procedures.
According to information on the Patient Safety Network website, certain types of surgical never events are among the most often reported types of mistakes that should never be made.
These events include mistakes like:
- A surgical operation being performed on the wrong body part
- Performing the wrong procedure on a patient
- Leaving objects like surgical sponges inside a patient
- Death of a healthy, normal patient during or immediately after surgical procedure
Surgical errors like these should never happen because they are so preventable. In fact, should one of these mistakes be made, it very well could be an indication of negligence or recklessness on the part of the doctors and/or nurses involved in the operation.
If you or a loved one has suffered damages as a result of this type of surgical mistakes, you would be wise to discuss the situation with an attorney before agreeing to any type of settlement with a hospital or making any final decisions about your legal options. It is important to understand that not all unfortunate outcomes of an operation may lead to medical malpractice lawsuits, but when a serious mistake is made, like a never event, you may very well have grounds to pursue compensation.