Earlier this week on our Chicago medical malpractice law blog, we mentioned that some hospitals in the U.S. are now using bar code readers in order to prevent injuries and infections resulting from sponges being left in patients’ bodies by mistake after surgery.
But technology cannot always make up for a doctor’s negligence before, during or after surgery. Medical professionals are still at risk of making surgical errors that could harm patients whenever they deviate from the standard of care or fail to focus on patient safety. Recently, a lawsuit was filed against an Illinois doctor and hospital after a patient claimed that several mistakes were made during surgery that caused her to suffer injuries that could have been prevented.
The patient now hopes to recover some of the costly damages she has incurred as a result of the doctor’s and hospital’s negligence during her operation. She estimates that the mistakes led to at least $225,000 in extra medical bills, lost wages and legal fees.
The woman filed the medical malpractice lawsuit last month. The lawsuit states that she had a routine hysterectomy performed at an Illinois hospital in April 2010. But during the operation, her doctor and several other medical professionals failed to treat a strangulated bowel and a hernia that occurred during the operation.
After surgery, the woman suffered further complications from the mistakes that were made during the operation, and the woman also contracted a staph infection. The lawsuit states that conditions in the operating room contributed to the infection.
Source: The Madison-St. Clair Record, “Woman blames doctor and hospital for surgical mistakes and staph infection,” Andrea Dearden, May 15, 2012
