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Can a recognized complication of a surgery be negligence? What about ureter injuries during hysterectomy?
A: Usually not. However, there is always an exception to the rule. For example, ureteral injuries are recognized risks of hysterectomies. In layman's terms, when surgeons remove a woman's uterus, injury to the tubes that carry urine out of the body can happen no matter how careful and talented the surgeon is.
That said, in a recent medical malpractice case, medical experts testified that a ureteral injury was medical negligence. The circumstances were quite unique. The injury involved a new cauterizing medical device. Surgeons use cauterizing devices to close incisions by burning the tissue together in a process analogous to welding.
The danger inherent with cauterizing devices is that unintended tissues can be burned which may result in injury or complications. In this case, the surgeon used a new version of a device which the surgeon thought had a zero burn radius (which the manufacturer's website calls "thermal spread radius").
Only after the surgeon had burned the patient's ureter did the surgeon research the device's burn radius, which was actually from 2 - 5 mm. If the surgeon had known this, the surgeon would not have used the device so close to the ureter, and the patient's injury would have been avoided. In addition, the doctor could have used a saline barrier, a physical barrier, a stent, or even a lighted stent (they even come in different colors) to show where the ureter was and prevent damage. However, the doctor chose not to.
In very limited and unique circumstances, recognized complications can be medical negligence.
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Zimmet & Quarles. P.L.
Halifax Harbor Marina
125 Basin Street, Suite 210
Daytona Beach, FL 32114
Phone: (386) 255-4020
Fax: (386) 255-2027
Toll Free: (800) 934-1020
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Offices
Zimmet & Quarles. P.L.
Halifax Harbor Marina
125 Basin Street, Suite 210
Daytona Beach, FL 32114
Phone: (386) 255-4020
Fax: (386) 255-2027
Toll Free: (800) 934-1020
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Medical Malpractice
- My wife died from a pulmonary embolism ten days after give birth to our child by c-section. We told her doctors and nurses at follow-up appointments about her leg swelling. We called her Ob/Gyn two days before that but he never returned our call.
Her doctors and nurses knew my wife was at risk for pulmonary embolism and that she was overweight. No one examined anything but her swollen ankles at the follow-up appointment. They didn't run tests on her heart, lungs or chest. They didn't check her pedal pulse like I read they should do. This has got to be medical malpractice, right? - My right lateral femoral cutaneous nerve was damaged during my hysterectomy. I am experiencing much pain now and it's so difficult to walk that I can't work in my sales position any more. My follow up exams found that my nerve is not severed. However, my EMG was quite abnormal. Is this the surgeon's fault?
