Medical Malpractice
This page will look at medical malpractice lawsuits involving post-surgery negligence or errors by doctors and/or hospital staff.
Surgery comes with risk. Sometimes the greatest surgical risks are after the surgery has occurred. Complications from post-surgical that lead to malpractice lawsuits are either (1) failure to identify and treat new complications, or (2) failure to identify a problem that occurred during the surgery that is now beginning to manifest.
Failure to Identify and Treat Post-Surgical Complications
The standard of care for many surgical procedures requires that the doctors and nurses monitor their patients by staying current and adequately informed on the patient’s post-surgery progress or lack of progress. The specific requirements depend, of course, on the surgery. There are specific complications with a given procedure that should be known and promptly identified when the symptomology is presented. More generally, we are talking about such things as monitoring lab values and vital statistics, responses to medication, radiology, and x-ray reports. Often, this involves the basics: blood pressure, heart rate, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and the patient’s pain rating.
Post-Surgical Bleeding
One common post-surgical risk is bleedings, specifically internal bleeding. The failure to timely recognize the signs and symptoms of a post-surgical bleed or the failure to arrange the appropriate treatment of a post-surgical bleed can be catastrophic. Common serious complications include cardiovascular collapse, failure, hypovolemic shock, and an inability to clot. The consequence of improper management of an active internal bleed is medical malpractice.
Blood Clots
The opposite problem of post-surgical bleeding is blood clots. Blood clots, usually in the legs, can migrate to the patient’s lungs and can cause a pulmonary embolism, stroke or other cardiac condition.
Blood clots can cause serious harm without meaningful symptoms. But there are often warning signs that doctors and nurses miss. Pain or swelling in the legs is a sign of a problem. If the patient has chest pain or shortness of breath, that is a sign that the clot may be moving to or in the lungs.
Atelectasis (Partially Collapsed Lung)
Another potential post-surgery complication is Atelectasis. After surgery to the chest or abdomen, there is an incision. Pain comes with that incision. So patients tend to avoid that pain by not breathing as deeply as normal. As a result, the lungs will not stay open. When that happens oxygen does not get into the blood and oxygenation drops. The mucus that is usually cleared out by normal breathing and coughing builds up and can cause complications, particularly pneumonia in older patients. The key is identifying the problem quickly — faster heart rates, dropping oxygenation and shortness of breath are the most basic clues. The standard of care in some cases might also require a spirometer which measures inhalation.
Post-Surgical Infection
Post-surgical infections are common and are the mostly likely because for a return to the hospital after a surgical procedure. So why is this last on our list? While it is not impossible, it is hard to bring a claim for fact that there is an infection in the first place. While it is very often the result of negligence, it is extremely difficult to prove. The more common post-surgical infection medical malpractice claim is the failure to diagnose and properly manage the infection.
Anesthesia Mistakes
Anesthesia errors are among the most dangerous types of post-surgical complications that can lead to medical malpractice claims. When anesthesia is administered incorrectly, either in dosage or technique, it will lead to a wide range of problems, such as brain damage, cardiac arrest, or even death. These errors are usually the result of negligent practices by the anesthesiologist or other surgical team members responsible for monitoring the patient’s vital signs during the procedure.
Some common anesthesia-related complications include intraoperative awareness, where a patient regains consciousness during surgery but is unable to communicate and improper intubation, leading to a lack of oxygen to the brain. Our lawyers sometimes see cases where there are toxic reactions when the anesthesia dosage is not appropriately calculated for the patient’s weight or health conditions. Anesthesia complications can also arise post-surgery, such as respiratory issues or prolonged sedation if the patient is not closely monitored.
When these complications occur due to negligence—such as failing to review a patient’s medical history for allergies or pre-existing conditions, or not keeping a close eye on vitals during surgery—they can form the basis of a malpractice claim. Successful litigation in these cases typically involves demonstrating that the medical professional failed to meet the accepted standard of care for anesthesia administration, resulting in serious injury or death.
Nerve Damage and Post-Surgical Negligence
One often-overlooked risk following surgery is nerve damage, which can occur when nerves are inadvertently cut, stretched, or compressed during a procedure. While some level of nerve irritation can be expected post-operatively, long-term or severe nerve injuries are usually preventable and may be indicative of surgical error or improper post-surgical management.
The symptoms of nerve damage can vary, ranging from mild numbness or tingling to severe pain, loss of motor function, or even complete paralysis in the affected area. These injuries are often caused by incorrect positioning of the patient during surgery, failure to avoid known nerve pathways, or the use of inappropriate surgical techniques. Sometimes, nerve damage is compounded by a lack of monitoring post-surgery, where symptoms like muscle weakness or abnormal sensations are not recognized early enough.
Do our lawyers handle a lot of post-surgery nerve damage lawsuits? We do not. These are extremely difficult lawsuits to prove at trial and the damages are often not serious enough to take the risk. But there are some very viable claims. For a medical malpractice claim related to nerve damage, you need to show that the surgeon did not adhere to the standard of care expected for the procedure and that this deviation directly caused the injury. Expert testimony often plays a significant role in every malpractice case. But in a nerve damage case, you particularly need a strong expert on the nature and extent of nerve injuries and why the doctor caused it.
Defenses in Post-Surgery Malpractice Cases
The most common defense asserted by doctors in post-surgery medical malpractice cases is that the patient was negligent in failing to follow the doctor’s post-operative care instructions. This defense gets asserted in various forms in more than half of all post-surgery negligence cases. This is essentially a factual defense that requires the defendant to prove that the patient was given clean post-operative instructions, and that the patient did not comply with those instructions.
In addition to establishing these facts, the defendant also needs to show that the patient’s failure to follow post-operative instructions was the direct and proximate cause of the alleged injuries. This requires expert testimony on the issue of causation.
The “failure to follow post-operative instructions” defense is not very successful for several reasons. First, it is often difficult for the defense to affirmatively prove that the patient actually ignored instructions after the surgery. The other reason this defense often fails is that is often doesn’t play well with juries. Most jurors view it as the doctor’s responsibility to ensure that a patient is following instructions.
Post-Surgery Malpractice Verdicts and Settlements
Below are summaries of recent verdicts and publicly reported settlements from medical malpractice cases involving allegations of post-surgical errors or negligence.
$2,700,000 Verdict (Illinois 2024): The decedent underwent surgery to drain an abscess in his groin. The decedent’s condition deteriorated post-surgery, including that he had lack of urine output, decreasing renal function, increasing creatinine levels, decreasing hematocrit and hemoglobin, decreased blood pressure, tachycardia, increased heart rate, reduced oxygen saturation and continued sepsis. He eventually died. The lawsuit claimed the doctors were negligent, including that they failed to adequately monitor the deceased; failed to properly recognize, diagnose and treat the deceased’s acute coronary syndrome; and failed to order testing that would have shown the deceased’s condition.
$1,531,000 Verdict (Maryland 2023): The plaintiff underwent a hysterectomy and salpingectomy. During the post-surgical period the plaintiff displayed symptoms of bowel obstruction which were ignored and which eventually led to a sepsis infection.
$5,323,000 Verdict (Illinois 2023): This post-surgery negligence case involved a negligent failure to monitor for signs of an error in the surgical procedure. The decedent underwent a sigmoid colon resection procedure. Post-surgery, the decedent reportedly complained of pain and discomfort, including ileus and scant to no output in her ostomy bag, allegedly related to a possible blockage caused by surgical error. The lawsuit alleged that the negligent post-operative monitoring resulted in a failure to identify the surgical error in time.
$1,131,000 Verdict (Virginia 2023): The plaintiff underwent carpal tunnel surgery on her right wrist. After the surgery she developed an infection at the surgical site which eventually required further surgeries and left her with permanent impairment. The lawsuit alleged that the defendants failed to properly treat and monitor her post-surgery, failed to perform a post-operative MRI, and failed to maintain proper records of her treatment.
$1,064,000 Verdict (Michigan 2023): The defendant surgeon accidentally lacerated the decedent’s stomach during a splenectomy procedure. The decedent displayed a number of warning signs during the post-surgical recovery period that were not promptly acted on. The lawsuit alleged negligence in the surgery and negligence in failing to treat her rapidly deteriorating condition post-surgery.
$2,500,000 Verdict (New York 2022): The decedent died from post-surgical complications after having hernia repair surgery. The lawsuit claimed the defendant, and his practice vicariously, were negligent in failing to properly monitor the decedent post surgery and prematurely discharged her. The defendant asserted that the decedent failed to follow his post-surgical instructions.
Getting a Lawyer to Help You
If you or someone you love has been seriously injured or killed as the result of post-surgical mismanagement, call Miller & Zois at 800-553-8082 for a free consultation or get a no obligation case review online.
Our attorney are based in Maryland which is the venue for the majority of the cases we handle. In particularly compelling catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases, we handle claims outside of Maryland. Either way, we will steer you in the right direction.