Surgical errors
Some bad outcomes are a known risk. Some are a mistake.
Every operation carries risk, and a poor result is not always an error. The law asks a narrower question: did the surgeon, the anesthesiologist or the team do something a careful practitioner would not have done, and did that cause the harm?
The chart can answer that question, so it is where we start. We collect the consent forms, the operative report, the anesthesia record, the nursing notes and the imaging, and a surgeon in the same field reads them before we advise you.
The mistakes we see most
- Surgery on the wrong site or the wrong patient
- An organ, nerve or blood vessel cut or burned during a procedure
- A sponge or instrument left in the body
- Anesthesia errors, including a change in oxygen or blood pressure that no one acted on
- A complication noticed late after surgery, or not at all
In the operating room
The record is written by several people
An operative report, an anesthesia record and the nurses’ counts are each kept by a different person, in time order. Where they agree, they tell us what happened. Where they disagree, that is usually where we look next.
The physician who reviews them is a surgeon in the same specialty, with no stake in how the case turns out.
Records we ask for first
The consent form and the surgical safety checklist
The operative and anesthesia reports
Sponge and instrument counts
Nursing notes and the recovery-room record
Imaging before and after the procedure
What the review answers
Three questions for the reviewing surgeon
Every surgical case turns on the same three, and each gets a written answer before we decide.
- 01
Was the risk disclosed?
Whether you were told what could go wrong, in words you could weigh, before you agreed.
- 02
Was the care careful?
Whether a careful surgeon in the same field would have done what was done, in the way it was done.
- 03
Did it cause this harm?
Whether the mistake, and not the illness or the operation itself, is what changed your recovery.
About surgical cases
I signed a consent form. Does that end it?
No. A consent form lists risks that can happen even when everyone does the job well. It does not excuse a mistake, such as surgery on the wrong side.
The surgeon called it a known complication. Is it?
Sometimes it is. Sometimes the name for a complication is used for something that should have been caught earlier. A reviewing surgeon can tell the two apart, and we ask before we advise.
What if the hospital has already offered to waive the bill?
Talk to us before you accept or sign anything. A waiver can be a kindness, and it can also be part of closing a claim.
How soon do I have to act?
Claims against doctors and hospitals have short, strict deadlines, and they can differ depending on who was responsible. Ask early, even if you are still in treatment.
Have an operative report to look at?
Tell us the date, the procedure and the hospital. We will request the rest and have it read.
Free first call. Fees are contingency: no attorney fee unless there is a recovery. Costs are explained in writing before you sign.