Report Finds Surgery Mistakes Have Harmed Hundreds of Florida Patients

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Shapiro Law Group

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The Florida Department of Health is filing a complaint against a Florida doctor who allegedly performed a wrong-site surgery on a patient. According to the complaint, the doctor operated on the wrong vertebra of a 77-year-old man. The man spent two weeks in a rehabilitation center recovering from injuries caused by the surgery. Similar preventable medical mistakes are happening more frequently in Florida.

ABC Action News recently published an article with interviews from several victims of medical mistakes. According to a mother interviewed for the article, surgeons partially removed her 19-month-old son’s left testicle instead of correcting a hernia. Other stories mentioned in the article are much more serious.

Last year, an Orlando doctor was fined $30,000 for placing a mechanical implant into the wrong heart valve of an 11-year-old boy. He died five weeks after the surgery and his family sued the hospital.

More than 300 wrong-site surgeries in Florida have been reported to the Agency for Health Care Administration since 2012. These reports include details on how doctors transplanted the wrong organs or operated on the wrong body parts.

How Florida Patients Are Harmed by Preventable Medical Mistakes

Wrong-site surgeries are called “never events” by the medical community and press. The name implies these mistakes are preventable and should never happen. It is unacceptable that preventable mistakes rob patients of their quality of life. Some patients may lose their lives. In the stories described above, some of these victims were children.

Pre-operation checklists can help health care practitioners prevent wrong-site surgeries. In addition, surgeons can take a timeout period to double-check that they are working on the right patient and that the correct body part has been labeled.

When hospitals and health care practitioners fail to provide an acceptable standard of care, they may be held liable. The Florida medical malpractice attorneys at Shapiro Law Group can help families and patients affected by medical mistakes.

Tags: TampaBay

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