Having surgery can be nerve-wracking at the best of times, and even though most operations carried out throughout the UK are performed without any issues, on some rare occasions something goes wrong.
Suffering medical negligence can have significant and wide-ranging effects from impacting your physical health and mental wellbeing to financial losses, unforeseen medical bills, and other life adaptations.
What could be considered a surgical error?
Surgical negligence happens when surgeons or other medical professionals make mistakes during your operation leaving you with further problems or injuries. Your surgery and care should meet certain clinical standards, but sometimes mistakes are made. Common scenarios are: –
- If the potential dangers of a procedure are not fully explained and therefore you didn’t give your informed consent for the operation.
- Problems with anaesthetic dosage.
- Faulty tools were used during the operation or if equipment malfunctioned.
- Receiving unnecessary treatment that was not required.
- Failure to monitor a patient’s heart rate during and after surgery.
- Operating on the wrong limb or internal organ.
- Operating without the appropriate expertise or training.
- Unintentional damage to nerves, arteries, or other internal organs.
- Causing an infection or an injury to the patient’s body.
Please keep in mind that errors that happened after the surgery can also be negligent. Negligence by surgeons or clinicians can be due to poor communication, incompetence, lack of pre-surgery planning, fatigue, or neglect.
Do I have a case to claim for surgical error compensation?
For a surgical error claim to be successful, lawyers have to prove that the medical team provided care in a manner that dropped below reasonably standards.
If the treatment you received fell below a minimum standard of competence and you suffered an injury as a result and it is more likely than not that the injury could have been avoided or less severe with proper treatment then you may be able to take legal action for compensation.
If you’re the next of kin of someone who has died because of negligent clinical care or who can’t take legal action themselves because they don’t have the capacity, you may be able to take legal action for compensation on their behalf.
Please get in touch with our medical negligence team and we can explain how we can prove that you have suffered from a surgical error.
How can we help you?
As we have mentioned above, a surgery mistake can hugely impact your physical and mental health, your and your family’s finances and life altogether. This is why compensation for surgical errors is really important.
Our clinical negligence experts have many years of experience in representing clients who have suffered surgical negligence. By bringing your claim to us we promise to leave no stone unturned and do everything we can to get you the compensation that you deserve.
We will try our best to make the process as stress-free as possible and your personal claim handler will be there to guide you through your claim, provide you with regular updates from start to finish and answer any concerns you may have.
Every case is unique, so please get in touch for a free discussion with our negligence team who can offer you some initial advice and help you understand what steps you should take to claim compensation. Please use our contact form to make an enquiry.