What are the most common types of surgical errors?
Sometimes, despite trying medication and other treatments, a medical condition may require surgery. While it is common for patients to feel apprehensive, the overwhelming majority of surgical procedures do not involve complications. Across the country, surgeons perform thousands of successful procedures every day.
However, there is always a chance that a surgical procedure will not go as planned. It is important to remember that not every mistake made during surgery is medical malpractice. Surgeons are human and can make honest mistakes; everyone on the surgical team is as well. Some mistakes are negligent, but many are not.
What are the most common surgical errors?
Even though surgical teams take every precaution that they can, surgical errors still occur. These are the most common.
- Inappropriate or unnecessary surgery
- Operating on the wrong side of the body
- Leaving a surgical instrument or another foreign object inside the patient
- Infections
- Anesthesia misuse, such as using too much or triggering an allergy
- Scalpel mistakes, such as cutting an organ
- Pre- or postoperative mistakes, such as failing to address complications
How do these errors happen?
When these errors happen despite precautions, they may occur due to negligence. Surgeons are not perfect and the law does not expect them to be. However, errors that happen because of these negligent causes may point toward an unreasonable mistake.
- Incompetence
- Under-staffing
- Lack of communication
- Prescription medication errors
- Fatigue
- Drug or alcohol abuse
If you suspect that you or a loved one suffered unnecessarily due to a surgical error, you may wish to discover the reason for the error.