Roanoke Surgical Error Attorney
Whether you are scheduling a routine surgical procedure in an outpatient center or you require emergency surgery in a hospital, you should not have to worry that your surgeon will make a mistake that might be described as a “never event” that results in serious or fatal injury. However, surgical errors do occur, and they can be devastating. If you or someone you love suffered serious harm because of a surgical mistake, you should seek advice from a Roanoke surgical error attorney as soon as possible about filing a medical malpractice claim. You could be eligible to receive financial compensation.
What is a Surgical Error in Roanoke, Virginia?
A surgical error is any type of mistake that occurs during a surgery. There are many different kinds of errors a surgeon can make, and some are more serious than others. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reports that wrong-site, wrong-procedure, and wrong-patient errors are deemed to be “never events,” which are “errors that should never occur and indicate serious underlying safety problems.” Of those surgical errors, wrong-side (of the body) surgeries are most common, accounting for nearly 60 percent of all surgical error never events. Other wrong-site surgeries are the next most common type of catastrophic surgical error, accounting for more than 20 percent of all reported surgical never events. Wrong-patient mistakes are relatively rare, but they do occur.
Different Types of Roanoke Surgical Errors
There are many different types of surgical error claims, including but not limited to the following:
- Wrong-site surgery;
- Wrong-side surgery;
- Wrong procedure;
- Wrong-patient surgery;
- Delayed surgery;
- Unnecessary surgery;
- Foreign object left inside the patient’s body during a surgical procedure, such as a towel or a sponge; or
- Organ perforation or puncture during a surgical procedure.
Sometimes patients immediately know that they have suffered an injury as a result of a surgical mistake, but other types of surgical errors may not produce signs or symptoms for quite some time. For example, if a surgeon leaves a towel, sponge, or another medical device inside a patient during a surgical procedure, it can be months or even years before the patient begins to experience severe pain and learns that the foreign object was left inside his or her body.
Timeline for Your Surgical Error Claim
Most medical malpractice claims, including surgical error cases, must be filed within two years from the date of the surgeon’s mistake under Virginia law. However, certain types of surgical errors may have an extended statute of limitations. In cases where a foreign object was left in the patient’s body and the patient did not discover the mistake until later on, the patient will have one year from the date that the object was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered.
Contact a Surgical Error Lawyer in Roanoke, VA
Have you sustained an injury due to a surgical error? Our Roanoke surgical error attorneys can assist you with a medical malpractice lawsuit. We can assess the particular facts of your case and help you to determine the best way to move forward with your case. Contact MichieHamlett today for more information and to get started on your claim.
