Although you trust your surgeon and their team to repair an injury or treat a condition that you have, they can still make mistakes that may cause you harm. But what steps do you need to take to pursue a medical malpractice claim if you’ve suffered injury or complications due to a surgical error that occurred at a New York hospital? Quick action can preserve your right to financial compensation and help you maximize your recovery for your losses.
Recognizing a Surgical Error
A surgical error occurs when a surgeon or other members of the surgical team make decisions or take actions that fail to comply with the applicable standard of care in the patient’s case. The standard of care refers to the decisions or actions that other healthcare professionals of similar training and experience would undertake in identical circumstances. A surgical error can cause a patient to suffer injuries or complications. However, surgical errors typically do not result from known risks of a surgical procedure that the surgeon advises the patient of before the surgery.
Some of the most common examples of surgical errors include:
- Wrong-patient surgery (performing a procedure on the wrong patient)
- Wrong-site surgery (performing a procedure on the wrong part of the patient’s body, such as amputating the wrong body part)
- Unintentionally damaging body tissues with incisions or equipment
- Leaving surgical equipment or materials inside the patient
- Infections (from improper sterilization procedures)
- Anesthesia errors (e.g., using too much or too little anesthesia, failing to monitor the patient’s condition)
Immediate Steps to Take
When you believe your surgeon or surgical team may have committed an error during your procedure, some of the critical steps you should take as soon as possible include:
- Seek follow-up medical care or a second opinion as soon as possible to treat injuries or complications.
- Obtain copies of your medical records related to your surgical procedure, including pre-operative treatment records and provider notes, informed consent forms, procedure notes, and post-operative care records.
- Gather copies of your pay stubs or income statements if you need to take extra time off work to recover.
- Keep all invoices or receipts for additional medical expenses.
- Refrain from signing any additional documents from the hospital without first having an attorney review them.
Understanding New York’s Medical Malpractice Laws
In New York, patients who experience surgical errors have limited time to file a lawsuit against their surgeon and the hospital where the procedure took place. In most cases, New York law imposes a 30-month (2.5-year) deadline from the date of surgery to file a medical malpractice lawsuit for a surgical error. However, certain exceptions can change the deadline. For cases involving equipment or materials left inside the body, a patient has 1 year from the date they discovered, or should have discovered, the equipment/materials. For children harmed by a surgical error, the deadline might not start running until the child’s 18th birthday, although they must file suit no later than ten years after the date of the surgery.
Patients wishing to file a lawsuit in New York for surgical errors must comply with the state’s certificate of merit requirement. Under this requirement, the patient’s attorney must certify that they have consulted with a licensed physician experienced in the relevant field to confirm that the patient’s claim has reasonable merit. However, this requirement may not apply when a surgeon operates on the wrong patient or body part, or leaves equipment inside a patient.
Talk to a Medical Malpractice Attorney
Complications or injuries caused by a mistake made by your surgical team could give you the right to seek financial resources to help you recover and heal. Contact McCann Legal, PC today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a New York medical malpractice lawyer to learn more about the steps you need to take to protect your right to compensation if you’ve suffered harm due to a surgical error in a New York hospital.