There are hundreds of people who die each year as a result of surgical procedures. This is because of the mistakes made by the surgeons operating on them, such as leaving foreign objects in the body of patients. Needles are an example of such objects. Although those errors are minor in nature, they sometimes have deadly consequences, and thus lead to personal injury cases. This article discusses surgery errors involving foreign objects in the body and how a personal injury lawyer can help after a poorly executed operation.
Facts about surgery errors involving foreign objects in the body
In a 2012 article that she wrote for the Los Angeles Times, Anna Gorman stated that of the 2,000 patients who are victims of surgery errors, 125 die each year.
It's usually several months after the operation that they start showing symptoms associated with the presence of surgical materials inside their body. Once the source of the problem has been identified, these individuals are once again asked to undergo another surgery destined to remove the given items.
How a personal injury lawyer can help
Learning that the cause of your internal pain is an item that was forgotten inside your body can be both frustrating and shocking. Depending on your ability to handle such information, you may or may not know where to start to file a claim. This is especially true if you've been dealing with the related pain for months, and spending a lot of money on ineffective pain relievers. Your injury may even worsen due to infections.
Working with a personal injury attorney is arguably the best thing to do. As you might know, the role of this legal professional will be to expose the level of responsibility of the hospital in which you were operated, which won't be very hard since forgotten surgical items are a well-known issue the medical field.
As you're preparing for surgery, keep in mind that you have a solid legal option available in case anything goes wrong during the operation. Indeed, your personal injury attorney will be there to help you find the source of your symptoms, prove that a mistake was made by the staff that operated on you, and ensure that both the foreign object is removed from your body, and you get compensated. To avoid further damages, contact a legal attorney as soon as you have reason to believe something is wrong.
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