A brief overview of wrong-site surgery

Though practicing methods in New Orleans have diminished the likelihood of occurrence of wrong-site surgery, an abundance of people still awake in recovery to realize that the surgeon quite literally missed to mark in the operating room. This can be quite devastating, as wrong site surgery avoids the correction of the initial issue — only to create another. Patients have lost organs and even had the wrong limbs amputated from their bodies due to medical malpractice leading to wrong-site surgery.

Numbers show that roughly 10 percent of all wrong-site surgery errors are reported to licensing boards. Incidents are most common in the practicing areas of orthopedic surgery, general surgery, neurology and urology. The Joint Commission has long been reviewing the methods used by surgeons to create a standard that will prevent wrong-site surgery from happening to trusting patients who enter the operating room with all faith in their medical professionals.

The cause for wrong-site surgery is often the negligence to follow a formal system. Many surgical procedures that used to be considered quite difficult and only performed in acute settings are now completed in outpatient, freestanding centers or even doctors offices. The lack of consistency in the level of scrutiny over these facilities allows many incidents to slip under the radar.

It is important for doctors to remain aware and vigilant during the process of preparing, undergoing and recovering from a surgical procedure, and for patients to report any mistakes. If you have additional questions, speaking to an experienced attorney in Louisiana could be beneficial to your situation.