Stuart-Port St. Lucie, Florida medical malpractice lawyer discusses the two things that should never happen to a patient during surgery.
In medicine there are two things that should never happen in surgery: (1) leaving a foreign object in the patient, whether it be a sponge, towel, gauze or instrument; and (2) wrong site surgery, which means performing the wrong procedure or performing a procedure on the wrong side of the body.
THE STATISTICS ARE ALARMING – DOWN RIGHT SCARY
Johns Hopkins University Researchers recently published an article in the medical journal Surgery that outlined the following:
- 39 times a week a surgeon leaves a foreign object in a patient
- 20 times a week a surgeon performs the wrong surgical procedure
- 20 times a week a surgeon performs surgery on the wrong body part
- Between 1990 & 2010 there were 80,000 of these so-called “never events” in US Hospitals
One of the researchers acknowledged that there are medical events that cannot be prevented; however, leaving a foreign object in a patient, performing the wrong surgical procedure or performing surgery on the wrong side of the body or wrong site are totally preventable. NO EXCUSES. Any way you slice it – this is medical malpractice.
Comment
I believe these events are under-reported. Most of the time, the problem comes to the surface because of an acute infection or something else; however, there are many patients that leave the hospital with a foreign body in them and feel unwell for months or years before the problem is found. These events are just not reported.
If you have any questions about a claim because a surgeon has left a foreign body in you or performed a wrong site surgery, give me a call at 352-267-9168 or fill out the Internet consultation form on the right.