Category: Surgical Errors

When your doctor told you that you needed surgery, you may have been frightened and apprehensive. However, you trust your surgeon to take care of you, and you believe the surgery is necessary because your doctor said the surgery was the best course of treatment for you. Unfortunately, surgeons make errors that...

Thousands of patients across the country go to hospitals each day for surgical procedures, and here in New Jersey surgical patients enjoy access to some of the nation's best hospitals and doctors through medical facilities in the Tri-state area. While many patients have fears about the underlying reasons that they must undergo surgery, few...

New Jersey residents will find it interesting to learn that a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that hospitals may profit from the surgical errors and mistakes they make. The study examined records of over 34,000 surgical patients in 2010 at one hospital run by Texas Health Resources,...

The term surgery invokes images of bright lights over a patient with nurses and doctors in surgical gowns, gloves and masks hovering over a patient about to undergo a procedure. This traditional imagery of surgery may change as robotic surgery gains acceptance for minimally invasive surgeries in numerous fields. However, despite the use of...

Most patients go into surgery cognizant that surgical intervention carries with it some risk. Nevertheless, doctors, hospital staff and surgeons have an on-going duty to provide a reasonable standard of care. Negligent healthcare provides may be held liable for providing sub-standard care, lack of informed consent, mistakes during surgery and other...

Anyone who has seen ER or Grey's Anatomy knows that doctors often work long hours. While the practice may be common, there is concern among some safety advocates that fatigue contributes to unnecessary and preventable medical errors. In fact, a number of studies conducted over the last several decades suggest that sleep deprivation can...

When surgery is necessary to save a life, healthcare providers are expected by families of the patient and the patient to take all reasonable to steps to ensure that an error does not occur. Despite efforts by hospitals to minimize surgical errors such as pre-post count of sponges to keep track of them,...

The word surgery automatically conjures up images of an operating room with surgical tools, sterile equipment, doctors and nurses hovering over the patient undergoing a procedure. Most New Jersey and New York residents hope they will never need surgery, but there may come a time when an emergency procedure may be needed to save...

Anyone who has faced or has been around a family member about to undergo a surgical procedure knows the anxiety the patient and the family may feel. Patients and their families expect that the surgeon has experience with the procedure, and operating room staff is well-rested and will not lose concentration or be distracted...