Surgical errors in the operating room are alarmingly common. As these errors can have drastic consequences for patients and their families, preventing them should be among healthcare providers’ top priorities. Yet, we routinely hear from people who are struggling to cope with the consequences of surgical mistakes, and studies have found that about half of all “adverse events” in the medical setting are “associated with a surgical operation.”
When you go into the operating room for surgery, you expect everything to go according to plan. You expect your surgeon to perform your procedure with care and precision, and you expect the other medical professionals in the room to help make sure that you come out safely on the other side.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen.
Each year, there are more than 4,000 surgical errors in the United States. While errors “appear to be more common before and after the surgical procedure . . . than . . . in the operating room,” errors in the operating room are still common enough to be cause for concern. Generally speaking, these errors should not happen. With today’s medical knowledge and technology, surgeons have the information and tools they need to perform patients’ procedures safely. Yet, these errors do happen, and in many cases they have life-altering or life-threatening consequences.
What kinds of surgical errors happen in the emergency room? Here are eleven of the most common examples:
When operating in close proximity to a patient’s internal organs, surgeons may accidentally damage patients’ organs during their procedures. A perforation occurs when a surgical scalpel or other tool nicks a patient’s bowel, allowing bacteria from inside of the bowel to spill into the body cavity. Lacerations involve damage to other internal organs. Perforations and lacerations present several risks, from the risk of infections and sepsis to the risk of internal bleeding and organ failure.
Nerve damage during surgery is a risk for patients as well. Even a split-second loss of concentration or a minor slip of the scalpel can result in damage to the nerves surrounding the surgical area. Other errors, such as causing excessive scarring or damaging the myelin sheath, can also lead to nerve damage following patients’ procedures. While some forms of nerve damage can be repaired, nerve damage from mistakes in the operating room will be permanent in many cases.
A study published by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in 2019 identifies four “never events” associated with surgical procedures. As AHRQ explains, “[t]hese ‘wrong-site, wrong-procedure, wrong-patient errors’ (WSPEs) are rightly termed never events—errors that should never occur and indicate serious underlying safety problems.”
Among this group of surgical errors, operating on the wrong side of a patient’s body is by far the most common—accounting for 59% of all WSPEs. While this most often involves operating on the wrong arm or leg, it can involve a variety of other surgical errors as well.
Operating on the wrong part of a patient’s body is the next most common WSPE, accounting for 23% of these “never events” in operating rooms. As AHRQ explains, “[o]ne example of surgery on the incorrect site is operating on the wrong level of the spine, a surprisingly common issue for neurosurgeons.”
Performing the wrong surgical procedure is the next most common WSPE, accounting for 14% of surgical errors in the operating room. While this can happen for a variety of reasons, AHRQ reports that “communication issues [are] a prominent underlying factor.” There is no excuse for a communication error resulting in a patient receiving the wrong type of surgery—and when a surgeon performs the wrong procedure (or makes any of the other errors on this list), this will provide clear grounds to pursue a medical malpractice claim in most cases.
Performing surgery on the wrong patient accounts for 5% of WSPEs. These surgical errors in the operating room can result from ineffective communication, patient record mix-ups, or the “classic case . . . of a patient who underwent a procedure . . . intended for another patient with a similar last name.” Not only do these errors prevent patients from getting the care they need, but they also expose patients to potential complications from the incorrect procedures performed.
When performing implant and transplant procedures, surgeons must meticulously implant the patient’s replacement device or transplanted organ. Here, too, even minor mistakes can have devastating consequences. From rushing the process to not knowing all of the necessary steps, various issues can lead to patient harm during these complex (and often high-risk) surgeries.
Along with the four “never events” discussed above, surgical errors in the operating room can take a variety of other forms as well. For example, anesthesia errors are also common. These errors can involve:
Depending on the circumstances involved, the consequences of anesthesia errors can range from severe pain and emotional trauma to death. Like the “never events” discussed above, these errors are also 100% preventable—meaning that there are no excuses for when these errors occur.
Failing to monitor patients’ vitals during surgical procedures is another all-too-common mistake that can have life-altering or life-threatening consequences. If a patient’s blood pressure or oxygen supply drops unexpectedly, this can potentially have devastating effects. As a result, attentive monitoring is critical, and failure to monitor can provide grounds to file a medical malpractice claim in many cases as well.
While robotic surgery is supposed to decrease the risk of surgical errors, studies have shown that “[r]obotic surgery results in an increase in accidental hemorrhage caused by lacerations and injury to surrounding tissues.” Even if a surgical error is due to a robotic failure, the patient (or the patient’s family) may have a claim for medical malpractice.
Another common surgical error in the operating room is leaving surgical tools or supplies in the patient’s body. Scalpels, forceps, gauze, and other items all can be—and have been—left behind. Not only can having a foreign object in the body be incredibly dangerous, but it necessitates another surgery (with the risk of additional errors in the operating room) as well.
If you believe that you or a loved one was injured as a result of surgical errors in the operating room, we encourage you to contact us promptly. Coplan + Crane has earned a reputation for excellence in these complex cases. We have helped clients across the state recover the compensation they deserved for their physical, financial, and emotional losses and we may be able to help you, too.
Contact Coplan + Crane today online or at 312-982-0588 to schedule a FREE case evaluation. We welcome clients from across Illinois, including Chicago, Oak Park, Rockford, and other areas. We handle medical malpractice cases on a contingency basis, which means you don’t pay unless we win.