Surgery is one of the most invasive medical treatments possible. Advances ranging from improved anesthesia to robotic devices that assist with particularly detail-oriented procedures help improve outcomes for patients and decrease common consequences.
Unfortunately, even with the best technology available, patients sometimes have poor outcomes after surgery. In some cases, those unfavorable outcomes are the result of a never event occurring during the procedure.
Patients who are familiar with this terminology used to describe egregious medical errors can more effectively advocate for justice when a surgical error affects them.
Never events should never happen
A never event is a medical mistake so preventable that other medical providers agree it is completely preventable with appropriate protocols. In surgical environments, the most common never events include wrong-side or wrong-site errors, where surgeons operate on the wrong location, wrong-procedure or wrong-patient errors, where they perform a procedure other than the one the patient requires, and retained foreign bodies.
Retained foreign bodies is the technical term for when a surgeon or a member of their support staff leaves items inside a patient, such as gauze or pieces of a medical balloon used during the procedure. All of those mistakes can affect the patient’s recovery and may require revision procedures to effectively address. They are also all preventable with proper care by medical professionals.
When surgeons and the people assisting them with procedures make severe mistakes that result in significant consequences for patients, a medical malpractice lawsuit could potentially be an option. Reviewing the records of a surgical error with a lawyer can help affected patients and families determine if a medical professional failed to follow current best practices, and whether their situation is legally actionable as a result.
