Surgeons are typically held to a very strict professional standard. They undergo years of formal training to ensure that they can operate on humans safely. They must comply with all standard policies imposed by their employers and relevant professional organizations, all while upholding the oath they take as a physician.
What constitutes a never event?
A never event is a medical mistake so overt and so easily preventable that it should never occur in a well-managed, modern facility. Numerous mistakes can constitute never events during surgeries, although the most common include wrong-site procedures, wrong-procedure errors and retained foreign bodies.
When surgeons operate on the wrong body part or the wrong side of the body, they can cause extensive harm to their patients. When they perform the wrong procedure entirely, the consequences can be devastating. Leaving items behind inside a patient can cause infections and traumatic injuries. Never events often require revision procedures and may drastically increase a patient’s overall costs and lost wages.
Unfortunately, “never events” still occur during surgeries in the United States with frightening regularity. After a never event during a surgery, a patient or their surviving family members may have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit.
When a professional doesn’t follow current standards of care and makes mistakes that other professionals with similar credentials could, should, and almost certainly would have avoided, their conduct may constitute malpractice. Reviewing medical records with a skilled legal team, such as that at Piro Zinna Cifelli Paris & Genitempo, LLC, can help those who have experienced poor surgical outcomes determine if they have grounds for medical malpractice lawsuits against the surgeons who operated on them and/or the facilities where the surgeries occurred.
