What Is Considered Malpractice For A Surgeon?

With over 10million surgeries performed each year in the UK, mistakes and negligence are inevitable. Although the large majority of these procedures are performed successfully, the cases of surgical malpractice cause unnecessary harm, pain, and trauma for the patient and loved ones. Surgical malpractice cases can leave the patient with a lifelong debilitating disability, reduced life expectancy or in more unfortunate circumstances death.

Therefore, you can sue if surgery goes wrong during any operating room procedure as a result of surgeon negligence. Our solicitors can assist you file a surgical error lawsuit for any form of negligence or carelessness from your surgeon which has caused you to suffer unnecessarily.

Each surgical procedure comes with its own risks and your surgeon should be able to explain these risks to you and obtain an informed decision from you. When this is not done and problems arise, you may make claims.

Your surgeon, like other healthcare providers, owes you a duty of care and should do all they can to ensure that you receive the right standard of medical care and when they fail in their duty of care to you causing you to suffer pain, trauma and complications which would have been well avoided.

Why Do Surgical Malpractice Occur?

In our many years of representing many clients who have either made failed operation claims or operation gone wrong claims, we have been able to find out why surgical malpractices occur. Despite being some of the most skilled and highly trained medical personnel, surgeons may be involved in medical malpractice for the following reasons;

• Misdiagnosis: This is a very vital factor leading to surgical malpractice. It is important that the right diagnosis is made to avoid cases of unnecessary surgeries. We have been able to make unnecessary surgery compensation claims for many clients over the years.
• Doctor Negligence: When surgeons are complacent and fail to do what they should do as at when to do so, surgical negligence is bound to occur.
• Fatigue/Tiredness: Most often, medical professionals are under pressure arising from trying to meet deadlines as well as the number of patients they see every day. When a surgeon is tired, he will not be able to carry out the surgery to the best of his ability. Mistakes may happen and the patient will suffer complications.
• Incompetence Of Surgeon – We have also discovered that most times the surgical negligence claims arise as a result of the surgeon lacking the required skill, knowledge and expertise in that very field.
• Lack of Efficient and Effective Communication: The medical team needs to communicate effectively during a surgery and any breakdown in communication may cause the patient to suffer harm.
• Failing To Make Proper Preoperative Planning: Planning before a surgery is carried out will go a long way to ensure that all is needed for the surgery is made available. When this is not done, there is a higher chance that errors will occur. 

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Examples Of Surgical Malpractice

Having known why surgical malpractice occurs, here are some examples of surgical malpractice which patients suffer and for which you may be entitled to compensation if proven that your injury, pain or complications are as a result of the negligent treatment you suffered.

The following actions can be attributed to as surgical malpractice;

• Performing an unnecessary surgery
• Carrying out the wrong surgery on a patient
• Performing a surgical procedure on the wrong body site
• Failing to monitor the patient after surgery so as to arrest whatever situation promptly
• Inserting a poor fitting prosthesis
• Unnecessary severing of blood vessels
• Failing to obtain patient’s informed consent before carrying out the surgery
• Unnecessary injury to internal organs during surgery such as a perforated colon during colonoscopy malpractice
• Unintended retention of foreign objects (URFOs) and retained surgical items (RSIs) such as a case of surgical sponge left in patient.
• Misplacing tubes
• Cosmetic surgery errors
• Avoidable mistakes in blood transfusion
• Amputating the wrong limb
• Negligently severing vital blood vessels or nerves.
• Avoidable anaesthesia mistakes
• Hospital acquired infections

Here are some of the surgical negligence claims we undertake;

• Wrong patient surgery cases
• Compensation for surgical errors
• Failed operation claims
• Operation gone wrong claims
• Nerve damage after surgery lawsuit
• Unnecessary surgery compensation claims
• Surgical sponge left in patient lawsuit

Proving My Surgical Malpractice Claim

The most important thing about claims is the ability of the plaintiff to prove that indeed medical negligence occurred and that his pain or injury is a direct cause of the negligent treatment suffered.

Suing for malpractice for NHS negligence or clinical negligence requires that you meet an experienced medical negligence solicitor who will guide you through the claims process and ensure that you are deservedly compensated. 

The following parts of negligence has to be established in order to prove your claims;

• Establish that your surgeon owed you a duty of care.
• Establish that your surgeon failed in that duty of care towards you by being negligent.
• Establish that your pain, suffering and trauma is a direct result of the failed surgery (negligence).
• Establish clearly the type and amount of damages you have endured as a result of the injury or harm suffered.

It is important that you be aware that being negligent alone is not enough to bring claims. There has to be an outcome of the negligent action. This is why demonstrating liability and also causation is very important in proving your claims. 

How To Make My Surgical Malpractice Claim?

When you come to us to represent you, we assign you a personal medical negligence solicitor who would work with a team of expert surgical negligence claims solicitors to ensure that we build a strong case for you to get you the justice you deserve.

We will assist you make available relevant documents for your claims such as;

• Your detailed statements 
• Medical reports, test result and scan results
• Witness statements from family and friends
• Evidence of financial losses incurred and out of pocket expenses including future estimated losses
• Photographs or images showing severity of injury or harm
• Report from an independent medical expert after performing medical examinations on you

After gathering evidence, we will proceed to contact the defendants by writing a letter of claim. We will then have deliberations about your claims. The aim here is to get them to accept liability and we will ensure we do that even if it means taking the case to be decided by a judge.

However, most cases are resolved out of court and we are confident that we will get you a well-deserved compensation amount which will help make life easier for you or your loved one.

Our medical malpractice lawyers have many years of experience in surgical malpractice and are accredited with relevant industry-based associations the Law Society’s Clinical Negligence Panel and the Action against Medical Accident (AvMA). 

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How Much Compensation Will I Get For My Surgical Malpractice Claim?

Cases such as this like many other medical malpractice claims do not have a fixed compensation amount. This is due to the fact that each case is unique in its way and has its own specifics.

Factors that affect compensation amount include;

• Type/location of injury
• Severity of injury
• Travelling expenses for medical appointments
• Rehabilitation and therapy costs
• Estimated time for recovery or another future prognosis
• Out of pocket expenses
• Home adjustments to suit new condition

While the aforementioned factors affect the compensation amount, the Judicial College had in its guidelines stated a range of compensation amount for general damages for several kinds of injury suffered.

The table below provides the value;

TYPE OF INJURY	NOTE	SETTLEMENT RANGE
Loss of sight	where there could be a risk of ophthalmia	£46,240 to £51,460
Hernias	Here there is limitation to physical activity and work even after correction	£13,970 to £22,680
Injuries to the Bladder	Injuries leading to partial or total Incontinence and impairment	£60,050 to £75,010
Injuries to Bowels	Where there is loss of function	Up to £140,870
Injuries to Kidneys	possible risk that the kidneys may not be able to function in the future	up to £60,050
Facial disfigurement	Severe scarring leaving a prominent disfiguring effect	£27,940 to £91,350
Facial disfigurement	Less severe scarring with substantial disfigurement	£16,860 to £45,440
Facial scarring	Significant levels of scarring which can be repaired substantially by surgery	£8,550 to £28,240
Amputation	Negligence resulting to wrongful amputation of the limbs	£65,000 to £200,000.
Injuries to internal organs	This may be lungs, heart, kidney, etc.	£60,000 to £100,000.
Orthopaedic injuries	Negligence resulting to Orthopaedic injuries	£50,000 and above depending on severity
Spinal cord injury	for moderate and less severe injuries  very severe injuries	£50,000 to £300,000 Up to £1 million

No Win No Fee Surgical Malpractice Claims

Our Surgical Malpractice Lawyers will undertake your negligence claims under our No Win No Fee policy (Conditional Fee Agreement). This means you can make your claims without any financial implications to you. You do not have to make any upfront legal fees before we begin to undertake your case. you also will not pay throughout the entire negligence claims process.

The insurance cover we take out for you protects you from making payments to us or the defendants in a rare case where the claims were not successful. 

However, when we have successfully defended your claims and your compensation award received, we will deduct a 25% “success fee” for the work we have put in.

Time Limit For Surgical Malpractice Claims

According to the Limitation Act of 1980, a three-year time limit is given for making medical negligence claims. This period of time becomes effective from the date of the surgical negligence or when you found out about it.

In a case where the individual is below 18 years of age, the individual thus will have until his or her 21st birthday to make a claim as the three-year time frame starts to count from the individual’s 18th birthday.

Here, the parents or guardians can make claims for the child.

Also, for an individual who is unable to make claims by themselves, the time frame can be waived until he or she is able to do so. In this case also, relatives or loved ones can make claims on behalf of the victim.

The effects of surgical malpractice can be very devastating. The physical injury, psychological injury as well as the financial losses are some of the ways the individual are affected. The loved ones also share in this burden. 

We expect medical professionals to fulfill their duty of care to their patients. If you are a victim of clinical negligence, please do not hesitate in making your claims. It will not only help the health establishment to make thorough investigations and adequate changes, it will also provide you with valuable help so that you do not suffer more after such an unfortunate incident.

We therefore encourage you to reach out to us, to begin your claim as soon as possible. You can as well fill out our online claim’s assessment form for a free assessment of your claims as one of our specialist lawyers will contact you to set up a meeting at your earliest convenience.