People make mistakes in the course of their jobs. And we've all heard the phrase "Mistakes happen." However when a surgeon makes a mistake, the results can be devastating to the patient. When you or a loved one is wheeled into the Operating Room, you count on the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, and all of the medical personnel attending to keep you safe. A mistake made during surgery can cause further complications or injury, years of health problems, or even death. Because cases involving surgical error or anesthesiologist error can be extremely complicated, you need a medical malpractice attorney with experience and determination to handle your case.

Surgical procedures are often complex and subject to various errors. Administration of surgery can also lead to errors. In some cases, there are known complications or risks of surgery that are often unavoidable, because any type of surgical procedure has risks. And though it is absolutely essential in making surgical procedures on people possible, anesthesia also comes with risks (too much, too little, improper monitoring).

Common Types of Surgical Errors

Some of the surgical mistakes that can occur include:

• Failure to suspend other medications before, during or after surgery
• Too much or too little anesthesia
• Complications from surgery
• Infections from surgery, called “iatrogenic infections”
• Wrong patient surgery
• Wrong site surgery
• Wrong organ surgery
• Wrong blood type transfusion
• Equipment left inside the patient

Chalik & Chalik Law Offices strongly encourages you to be proactive. Learn as much as you can about how to protect yourself from surgical errors before your surgery.

An often-cited report titled "To Err Is Human" by the Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, Institute of Medicine (IOM), estimates that as many as 98,000 people die each year in U.S. hospitals due to medical mistakes. However, that frightening estimate may actually be too low. An article by Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), reported that an astonishing 225,000 deaths may be caused by iatrogenic infections. That would make medical mistakes the third-leading cause of death in this country.

Medical professionals may be held accountable if they made surgical errors that caused pain, suffering, or brought on unnecessary complications in the patient. Barbara Starfield has written that U.S. healthcare is not the best in the world. Patients and their families must advocate for themselves. And if there's a problem resulting from surgical error, you need an experienced medical malpractice attorney to fight for what you need and deserve.

Chalik & Chalik Law Offices has experience in surgery mistake cases. If you believe you or a family member has suffered injury or damages as a result of a surgical mistake, we want to hear from you. Contact the Florida medical malpractice lawyers at Chalik & Chalik for your complimentary legal consultation.