Surgical Accidents & Mistakes
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Pittsburgh Surgical Accident Attorneys
During surgery there are many things that can go wrong. Many injuries that occur during surgical procedures will heal with little harm to patient if they are accurately diagnosed and treated immediately. When a medical malpractice case is based upon the idea that carelessness during surgery has resulted in injury to a patient there are many possible areas of concern. If you or a loved one has suffered grievous harm as a result of negligent actions during surgery, we urge you to contact our law firm for a free case evaluation.
Surgical Malpractice FAQ
There are legal standards of care that surgeons are held to.
Under Pennsylvania law, it is not considered medical malpractice if a surgery simply results in a bad outcome. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees in medicine. During some medical malpractice trials involving surgical errors, judges may even instruct the jury that doctors do not and cannot guarantee a good outcome from surgery and that just because a patient has a bad outcome does not mean the doctor was negligent.
However, there are still situations in which surgeons can be held legally liable for mistakes they make during treatment. Like other doctors, surgeons are required to use reasonable care to avoid causing injury to patients during surgery. Reasonable care during surgery means a surgeon must use training and experience developed over many years to protect their patient from harm. Careful surgeons should also know and understand established techniques they need to use during surgery to prevent causing harm to their patients. A surgeon that does not use reasonable care in their treatment of a patient could be held legally and financially accountable for injuries they cause.
Our legal consultations are always free unless we recover money for you. During the course of our investigation into your medical malpractice claim, we advance any costs that we deem necessary in the proper handling of your case. If we do not recover money for you, you do not have to return any of the costs incurred associated with your case.
This is called the Contingent Fee.
Contingent fees make it possible for anyone to hire only the very best lawyer to decide if there are grounds for a claim, without paying for that advice. More importantly, it gives everyone access to the justice system and representation equal to the best that insurance companies, doctors, and other defendants can hire.
The law limits the amount of time you have in which to file a medical malpractice case in Pennsylvania.
Statute of Limitations: You typically have two years from the date of injury to file a medical malpractice case in Pennsylvania.
Minors Tolling Statute: In a case where the victim is a child (under 18), the statute of limitations does not apply until the child reaches 18. This means that a claim must be filed before the child turns 20.
Discovery Rule: If the injury is not discovered immediately the discovery rule may extend the amount of time in which you can file your claim.
In many medical malpractice cases a settlement is reached without trial. In order to determine and agree upon the amount of a settlement, the following factors are considered:
- Establish the full extent of the injury.
- Determine the future needs of the victim, including expected medical costs and cost associated with living with the injury, such as retrofitting of the home, devices and appliances that may be required, and long-term personal care.
- Determine the maximum recovery obtained in similar cases that may have set a precedent.
- Calculate how much the victim would have reasonably made in wages over the course of their lifetime or in the case of homemakers, their contribution to the needs of their family. For more information on the value of a homemaker, click here.
When you are awarded a medical malpractice settlement you have two options. Your first option is to take your settlement as a lump sum (i.e. a check for the full amount of their settlement). Your second option is to invest some or all of your settlement in a structured annuity that will pay out chunks of money over time at a guaranteed interest rate.
When you opt for the annuity, you enter into a contract with a life insurance company. You give the insurance company a lump sum payment up front. In return, the insurance company provides you regular money distributions at a guaranteed interest rate over a period of time in the future.
Structured personal injury settlements are income-tax free. In 1982, Congress passed legislation that amended the federal tax code. Their action, The Periodic Payment Settlement Act of 1982, formally recognized and encouraged the use of structured settlements. In response, the Internal Revenue Code was modified to exempt personal injury settlements from taxation so long as the proceeds were invested in a qualified structured settlement annuity. By contrast, the investment earnings on a lump sum payment are generally subject to taxation.
As you approach the settlement of your lawsuit, talk to your lawyer about your options. Ask your lawyer to obtain a variety of proposals from a qualified structured settlement company. Discuss the benefits and implications of structuring some or all of your settlement. Until you sign the annuity contract you are free to do as you wish with your money.
Standards Of Care
Surgeons may also have a duty to protect patients from harm before surgery even begins. For example, surgeons must be sure patients with pre-existing heart or lung conditions can endure the stress of surgery without an unacceptable risk of a respiratory or cardiac arrest. Surgeons should also understand whether their patients are taking medications which could lead to uncontrollable bleeding during surgery, such as anticoagulants or antiplatelet drugs. If so, surgeons should work with such patients and their personal physicians to decide upon the best strategy to protect the patient from harm, including holding the medication, substituting a safer alternative medication, or postponing the surgery if possible.
How Do Surgical Errors Usually Occur?
Many medical malpractice cases involving surgical errors involve unintended injuries to nerves, blood vessels, the spinal cord, or vital organs. Surgery involves the dissection of skin and subcutaneous tissues like fat and muscle. While using dissection to expose the area of the body where they intend to operate, surgeons must make sure they are cutting or dissecting the right parts of the body. Sensitive structures like nerves, the spinal cord, or even organs like the brain and intestines are prone to injury from scalpels, electrocautery devices, and surgical implants like staples, screws, and intervertebral cages.
Medical malpractice also occurs when surgeons fail to inspect for surgical injuries. Damage to blood vessels, nerves, or other structures can be repaired and injury avoided if the surgeon takes the time to double-check these structures are intact and free from an unnoticed or even unavoidable injury. However, in haste or oversight, some surgeons do not properly inspect the surgical field for injuries caused during surgery. In these cases, patients can develop life-threatening infections, bleeding, or other complications. The unnoticed injuries could result in further hospitalization, surgery, and in some cases, permanent disability or death.
Surgeons are trained to identify and protect nerves and other parts of the body which are known to be susceptible to injury during surgery. In other words, surgeons are required to know what parts of the body are at risk during a particular surgery and take proper measures to prevent injuries from these known risks.
Surgeons who fail to take proper protective measures could be held legally liable for injuries that result with the help of a knowledgeable Pittsburgh surgical errors attorney.
Our attorneys have successfully handled cases involving the following types of surgical errors:
- Operating on the wrong part of the body or the wrong side of the body
- Using excessive force when placing cages or hardware within the spine
- Failure to communicate with anesthesia regarding dangerous changes in blood pressure or heart rate
- Failure to fully and properly dissect critical structures that need to be protected or cleared before a surgeon can cut something inside the body
- Positioning errors which result in stretching or compression of nerves such as those of the brachial plexus or the femoral nerve
- Misplacing cages into the spinal cord
- Failure to recognize nerve injury after surgery and promptly repair the injury
- Failure to use neurological monitoring to prevent unnoticed injury during brain or spine surgery
- Failure to identify nerves and protect them from harm related to dissection, stretching, or cutting
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