Knoxville Post-Surgical Error Attorney
A doctor’s duty of care doesn’t end when a patient is wheeled out of the operating room. Instead, competent doctors should continue to monitor patients and not discharge them until they have recovered sufficiently well from the surgery. Unfortunately, many doctors violate this duty—and patients suffer the consequences.
If you or a loved one became ill after surgery, then a post-surgical error could be to blame. Contact a Knoxville post-surgical error attorney today to discuss whether you have a possible case and what type of compensation is possible.
Types of Post-Surgical Errors
In many ways, the days following a surgery are just as critical for a patient’s well-being as the days leading up to it. Some of the mistakes medical professionals make include:
- Failure to monitor. Proper monitoring of patients is essential to catch any problems, such as bleeding, which can cause blood pressure to crash. Without proper monitoring, patients could end up back in the operating room or possibly even die.
- Many germs are circulating in hospitals, and a postoperative patient is vulnerable to catching one. Hospitals and staff should properly disinfect all equipment and keep the wound clean with new bandages. Unfortunately, lax care often leads to infection and serious complications.
- Inadequate counseling. A doctor should provide clear, complete instructions on how to take care of yourself at home following surgery. When this information is incomplete, many patients end up getting injured. For example, a doctor might not properly instruct on how to keep wounds clean, which could lead to infection at home.
- Premature discharge from the hospital. Many hospitals are short on beds, and there is constant pressure to get patients discharged as quickly as possible. However, if the discharge is too early, a patient could become very ill.
The above are some common post-surgical errors. There may be others. The key is to meet with a seasoned Knoxville medical malpractice attorney to review your case.
Why Lawsuits Are Difficult to Bring
A victim faces certain hurdles to receiving compensation. For starters, the fact that you are ill after surgery does not mean that the doctor or hospital is to blame. Some patients simply do not recover, even with the best care.
Instead, our clients must show that the defendant did not follow the correct standard of care and that this failure caused their medical problems or injury. For example, inadequate counseling on how to clean wounds led to infection and then subsequent surgery to treat it.
These cases are very complex. Hospitals often resemble vaults, and it is hard to get them to turn over patient records. Doctors, nurses, and hospital administrators rarely, if ever, admit to a mistake. For example, a hospital might pressure patients to leave early but would not want to admit that fact for fear of negative press attention. The right attorney should know the legal process for securing patient records and other helpful information that forms the basis of a legal claim.
Contact a Knoxville Medical Malpractice Attorney to Review
Were you injured in the days following surgery? If so, then a post-operative error could be the culprit. At Atkins Brezina, PLLC, we meet with many people fresh out of the hospital who believe that they received substandard care. Let us review the facts as known and decide on sensible next steps.
