When Surgery Goes Wrong: Holding Medical Professionals Accountable
You went in for surgery expecting to feel better, not worse. Instead, you woke up with new problems the doctors caused. Surgical errors ruin lives. They leave you with injuries that won’t heal, pain that won’t stop, more operations to fix the damage and bills you can’t afford. These mistakes happen when doctors and nurses skip safety checks, work too fast or miss obvious problems. What happened to you wasn’t your fault. Iowa law says you can get money when a medical mistake hurts you.
Spaulding & Shaull, PLC, represents surgical error victims across Iowa. Our medical malpractice team understands Iowa’s certificate of merit requirement. This means a medical expert must review your case and confirm the doctor made a mistake.
Types Of Surgical Errors
Medical teams make preventable mistakes that cause serious harm, including:
- Wrong-site surgery: Performing the operation on the incorrect location on your body
- Wrong-patient surgery: Operating on someone who wasn’t scheduled for that procedure
- Wrong-procedure surgery: Performing surgery you never consented to or needed
- Anesthesia errors: Administering incorrect dosages or wrong medications to sedate you
- Retained surgical instruments: Forgetting medical tools, gauze or equipment inside your body
- Nerve damage: Injuring nerves through improper surgical technique
- Surgical infections: Contaminating the surgical site through unclean practices
- Post-operative care failures: Failing to monitor or address complications after your procedure
- Medication errors: Administering incorrect pharmaceuticals during your operation
These errors cause devastating injuries. They require more surgeries, long-term rehabilitation and permanent lifestyle changes.
Common Procedures Where Errors Occur
Doctors make mistakes during all kinds of surgeries. Joint replacements go wrong when surgeons mix up which knee or hip needs fixing. Heart operations need perfect precision, but not every team delivers it. Spine surgeries can leave you unable to walk when doctors slip and hit the wrong spot. Childbirth surgeries put both you and your baby in danger when things go wrong. Even routine surgeries aren’t safe. Getting your gallbladder out, having your appendix removed, or fixing a hernia can all end badly when doctors and nurses rush through steps or don’t pay attention.
Get Help From An Iowa Surgical Error Attorney
Spaulding & Shaull, PLC, knows how to handle Iowa’s medical malpractice laws. This includes the certificate of merit requirement that demands expert testimony before filing suit. We handle every part of your claim so you can focus on recovery. Call our office at 515-620-3355 or use the online contact form to speak with an experienced medical malpractice lawyer.