Each year, numerous people undergo surgical procedures across the United States, just as they do here in Illinois. Many of these procedures are performed without any adverse health consequences for the patients, but many other patients end up becoming the victims of surgical errors. Those mistakes often have serious or fatal results.
Many Illinois residents put their lives into the hands of who they believe to be competent surgeons and their teams every day. Even so, the medical professionals to whom we entrust our lives are human; therefore, they are capable of making mistakes. It does not take long while searching the internet to find stories of people who were victims of human errors.
Some people had surgical instruments left inside their bodies. Some surgeons operated on the wrong body parts and others performed unnecessary procedures. In some cases, the surgical instruments that were used were not left in the body, but they were not sterile either, which can easily lead to life-threatening infections and possibly death.
The risks are not limited to the surgeries themselves. Post-operative care is a crucial part of the procedure in order to ensure that a patient’s recovery goes well and according to plan. Furthermore, if a patient is not properly monitored in the hours and days following a procedure, any errors made in the operating room might not be discovered in time to prevent serious harm.
Therefore, if you suspect that you or a family member suffered harm due to surgical errors, it would be better to involve an attorney as quickly as possible. Gathering the evidence that will be necessary to prove to the court that the care received was substandard and that mistakes were made needs to be done in a timely manner. Even with medical records and witness statements, physical evidence still on or in the body fades as a patient recovers, or it could be missed in a autopsy, if errors prove fatal. For these reasons and more, it would be beneficial to know your rights and discuss your options as soon as is practical depending on the circumstances.