Medical errors come in a variety of forms, but some are more common than others. Some medical errors are preventable, while others are not as easily preventable. Dealing with a serious but preventable medical error can be extremely difficult, not only because of the costs and life changes involved, but also because the patient knows that that, with reasonable care, it didn’t have to turn out that way.
One particularly difficult type of medical error that is not that uncommon is wrong-site surgery, which involves the performance of a surgical operation on the wrong part of the body, typically on the opposite side. While not every instance of wrong-site surgery has permanent, life-changing effects, some do.
Wrong-site surgery, along with wrong-procedure and wrong-patient surgery, are commonly held in the medical community to be outcomes that should never occur unless there are serious underlying safety issues that need to be addressed. These errors can occur for a variety of reasons, such as poor record-keeping, poor communication among providers, careless surgical preparation, distracting operating room conditions, and so on.
Whatever the reasons behind these accidents, patients who experience them need to work with a skilled attorney to represent their rights and advocate their interests. Suing for medical malpractice may be an option in some of these cases. In other cases, seeking a fair settlement out of court will be a more desirable avenue. In any case, experienced legal counsel can help ensure the patient has the best shot at obtaining fair compensation.
