What Are My Options After a Surgical Mistake?

It’s common for people to usually be nervous about having surgery. You’re putting all your trust in your surgeon and the hospital to fix your medical problem and help you recover so you can go home and get back to your regular life. When something goes wrong in surgery because of a doctor’s negligence, it can have long-lasting effects on your health. Surgical mistakes can be wrong site surgery, where the surgeon doesn’t operate on the correct area and sometimes, surgical tools or bandages can be left in the surgical site.

These situations are scary and a betrayal of trust. If you or a loved one has undergone surgery and the surgeon made a mistake, you have legal options to stand up for yourself. With the help of a Biloxi medical malpractice lawyer from Corban Gunn Law, you can fight for your rights and get the compensation you need.

What Are the Different Kinds of Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice extends beyond surgical errors. The negligence of doctors can affect people in any stage of medical treatment.

Other forms of medical malpractice include:

• Misdiagnosis/Failure to Diagnose. Doctors can fail to recognize symptoms and diagnose someone with the wrong illness, or they don’t diagnose the illness in a time where another doctor would have identified the correct illness.
• Wrong Treatment. When doctors prescribe the wrong medicine, it can have a detrimental affect on the patient. Their treatment might not be what they need to help get rid of the illness, or make the illness worse.
• Medication Errors. Patients can be prescribed or given the wrong medication and doctors can incorrectly administer a drug. It’s also considered medical malpractice if the doctor doesn’t inform the patient of the potential dangers and interactions from taking the drug.
• Withheld Information. Doctors need to explain procedures and treatments to patients, and this includes going over the risks and what could potentially happen if the patient goes through with a surgery or treatment plan.

What Happens After a Surgical Error?

After a surgical error, you can contact a medical malpractice attorney and start your claim. In a medical malpractice case, you need to prove the following:

• The Existence of a Doctor-Patient Relationship. Before getting into negligence and injuries, you first need to prove that you and the doctor had a doctor-patient relationship: You hired the doctor to help you and the doctor agreed to be hired and help you.
• The Standard of Care Wasn’t Met. Doctors are supposed to meet a standard of care when treating patients. The standard of care is what a competent doctor would do if they were in the same situation as the doctor who was negligent. You need to be able to show that the doctor didn’t meet the standard of care, and their negligence caused your injuries.
• How Your Injuries Have Affected You. After proving that the doctor’s actions caused your injuries, you need to show how your injuries have caused pain and suffering and how the injuries have negatively affected your life. This could be causing chronic pain or making you miss work.

Medical malpractice can leave you feeling stressed and confused. You have enough to deal with without having to worry about suing someone on your own. Seeking legal help will put an expert on your side and look out for your best interests.