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What if I was the Victim of a Serious Surgical Error?

What if I was the Victim of a Serious Surgical Error?

In the medical field, a “never event” refers to a shockingly egregious medical error that should never happen in a professional setting. The term was introduced in 2001 by the CEO of the National Quality Forum, a non-profit organization that works to improve healthcare quality through collecting data and reporting its findings to the public. One of the most serious types of “never event” that continues to occur in California hospitals is performing the wrong surgical procedure on the wrong patient. When this occurs, victims can be permanently affected and may require significant additional surgery in order to even partially correct the error. As a result, victims can often recover significant compensation when these kinds of errors occur.

Wrong-patient surgery can have devastating consequences

Imagine going into a surgery to have a failing kidney replaced, only to wake to discover the surgeon and his or her staff has mixed up you and your kidney donor. Rather than having one functional kidney, the likely result of this mistake would be that you and your donor would be left with one bad kidney, as opposed to the intended result of both of you having one good kidney. Obviously, this could lead to extremely serious consequences, including:

  • Serious health problems
  • Additional surgical procedures
  • Dialysis
  • Emotional issues, including anxiety, depression, mental anguish, and PTSD
  • The time, expense, and stress associated with trying to find a new donor

These kinds of accidents should never happen. In many cases, the medical professional or institution liable for never events simply concedes liability, meaning that the only issue left to be resolved is the amount of compensation victims will receive. Unless you have experience appraising medical malpractice claims, you should not try to negotiate a settlement amount without the assistance of an attorney. In many cases, insurance companies offer unrepresented parties seemingly high settlement offers hoping they will simply accept them when, in reality, their claim is worth significantly more.

Contact a Sacramento medical malpractice attorney today to schedule a free case evaluation

When people are injured by the negligence or carelessness of medical professionals, they are often entitled to significant compensation. The attorneys of the Teal Law Group have been representing the legal rights of injured victims since 1975 and are respected as one of California’s leading medical malpractice law firms. To discuss your case with one of our Sacramento medical malpractice lawyers, call our office today at 916-448-1010.