When you have surgery or seek treatment for an adverse health condition, you rely on your doctor, surgeon and entire medical team to help you stay safe and get well. Full recovery is not always possible in every situation; however, you should never have to worry about winding up in worse condition after receiving medical care. Georgia laws that govern the practice of medicine are in place to help keep you safe.
You naturally expect your doctors, nurses and other licensed care providers to adhere to regulations and protocol, no matter how menial a task they might be performing in conjunction with your health care. Sadly, medication errors and surgical mistakes top the list when it comes to patient injuries in this state and others. It’s important to know where to seek support if medical negligence occurs while you’re in the hospital.
Surgical negligence can be disastrous
Especially if you’re having surgery that necessitates putting you to sleep, you have no way of knowing what’s going on in the operating room while you’re unconscious. Your surgeon will have hopefully discussed your procedure with you at length ahead of time, including informing you of any known risks associated with your situation.
Sadly, many Georgia patients and others throughout the country suffer serious infections or injuries that were easily preventable, had it not been for medical negligence. The most frequently reported surgical injuries have occurred when surgeons leave foreign objects inside patients’ bodies. Wrong-site surgeries, wrong-patient surgeries and wrong-procedure surgeries also top most lists of negligence incidents causing patient injury.
System in place to keep you safe
Most hospitals use sophisticated software to document medical records nowadays. Your doctor, surgeon and nurses must frequently log on to the computer to enter new information or check existing data in order to provide you with high-quality care.
If a nurse gives you medication without checking your records or someone comes to take you to the operating room without double-checking that you are the correct patient for the impending procedure, it can cause you serious or life-threatening injury.
The aftermath of surgical errors
Imagine awakening from anesthesia only to learn that your surgeon operated on the wrong body part or did a procedure for which you did not need. Such injuries cause emotional trauma as well as physical injury. Some patients think they’re fine when they leave the hospital, only to experience pain or other symptoms days or weeks after surgery.
Leaving foreign objects inside patients’ bodies causes symptoms like this. If you don’t feel that your condition is improving once you’ve gone home from the hospital, it’s a good idea to immediately seek medical examination. Recovering surgical error victims often seek financial accountability against those whose negligence caused their injuries.
