Surgical errors and omissions

Birchall Blackburn Law’s clinical negligence solicitors have decades worth of experience dealing with the aftermath of surgical errors. The specialist team has seen a number of common mistakes time and time again. These include:

• A surgeon’s failure to use adequate care and skill in the performance of the surgery
• Poor planning (e.g. failure to ensure correct X-Rays, scans and medical devices selected prior to operation)
• Use of incorrect medical device (e.g. substandard selection of knee or hip replacement devices, which leads to revision surgery)
• Substandard use of surgical equipment in undertaking surgery (e.g. diathermy use in abdominal or pelvic surgery, which leads to injuries of surrounding tissue structures)
• Surgery offering a hemiarthroplasty (partial hip replacement) instead of total hip arthroplasty
• Key hole or arthroscopic surgical errors (e.g. often a junior or trainee registrars who improperly inserts port equipment causing injuries to structures or operating on wrong anatomy due to basic surgical techniques in surgery not being adhered to)
• Anaesthetic mistakes (e.g. extravasation injuries to patients due to inappropriate administration of anaesthetic or fluid lines or inappropriate monitoring that causes injury)
• Foreign bodies (e.g. swabs or surgical tools) left inside the body
• Failure to follow up on blood tests, failure to investigate blood tests, or does not action abnormal blood tests
• The surgery is unnecessary
• Surgery performed on the wrong part of the body
• A patient has not given fully informed consent for a procedure
• Failure to adequately monitor vital signs
• Heart surgery mistakes and omissions
• Cosmetic surgery errors
• Nerve damage (e.g. cauda equina and spinal compression syndrome when there is a lack of feeling or numbness in the bowel or bladder)
• Organ damage (e.g. bowel damage due to negligent chemotherapy or diathermy)
• Brain damage (e.g. failure to properly monitor patient during and post surgery)
• Failure or delay in diagnosing an infection
• Surgery leads to chronic pain syndrome (CPS)

This list is not exhaustive, and it is vital that you contact a specialist clinical negligence solicitor as soon as possible if you believe that you or a family member has received substandard surgical treatment.

Even routine operations are complicated and invasive. It can take time to recover and the care you or a family member receives after an operation is important for rehabilitation.

If you believe that you or a loved-one has received poor post-operative care or a mistake was made in the aftermath of the operation, which resulted in further injury or illness, then you may be entitled to compensation to help you put that right.

It could have been a failure to adequately monitor heart rate, bloods or hydration. There are many life-threatening post-operation complications that can occur. For example:

• Excessive blood loss, which is also referred to as haemorrhaging
• Infections that led to sepsis
• Blood clots
• Rapid drop in blood pressure causing shock

With regular observation and monitoring a potential post-operative problem can be recognised if signs of deterioration occur and treated quickly to avoid further injury or illness. A doctor may be negligent in failing to take reasonable steps to reduce the chances of complications after an operation.

It is vital for you to speak to a specialist clinical negligence solicitor as soon as possible. An experienced solicitor will give you free initial advice, in confidence and without any obligation. They will talk to you about your operation, what has happened, whether you have a case for compensation, and how to proceed.

This first call or contact with a Clinical Negligence solicitor is also an opportunity for you to question them about their experience and expertise. Don’t hesitate to ask them how many surgical error cases for compensation they have dealt with in the past and are dealing with now.