You may have been well-informed on the potential risks of your surgical procedure before you signed off on it. But out of all these mentioned dangers, you may have never heard of a possibility as serious as being left with permanent brain damage. Being left completely devastated, it is understandable if you want to take legal action against the surgeon who performed the procedure. With that being said, please follow along to find out whether you can sue a doctor for causing your brain injury during surgery and how a proficient New York City neurological injuries lawyer at Mark L. Bodner, P.C., can help prove this connection effectively.
How can a brain injury happen during surgery?
When you are on an operating table, any action a surgeon or medical team makes can mean life or death. If not death, then serious consequences like permanent brain damage. And so, the following are examples of critical mistakes during surgery that can result in a serious brain injury:
- A surgeon may have cut or clamped the wrong artery or vein.
- A surgeon may have used improper surgical tools near the skull or spine.
- A medical team member may have let blood clots or air embolisms travel to the brain.
- An anesthesiologist may have failed to monitor oxygen flow during anesthesia.
- An anesthesiologist may have failed to address low blood pressure during anesthesia.
Can I sue a doctor or hospital for a brain injury from my surgery?
First of all, you must understand that not every surgical complication equates to medical malpractice. So, to have legal grounds for a malpractice claim, you must satisfy the burden of proof and establish that your brain injury directly resulted from your surgeon’s negligence. That is, their surgical error was avoidable, and any other surgeon who met the accepted medical standards would not have made this mistake.
Of course, you were unconscious during your surgical procedure, and you may not have directly witnessed the error that caused your brain injury. However, this may still be confirmed with your medical records pre- and post-dating your surgery. Here, you may highlight early signs of brain damage that arose after surgery, such as severe headaches, loss of coordination, vision issues, a long-term coma, etc. Also, your lawyer may assist you in obtaining your operative report, which should explicitly disclose the complications experienced during your surgery.
Lastly, along with holding a surgeon, medical team member, or anesthesiologist accountable, you may direct your claim toward the hospital that employs them. This is because a hospital may be liable if it failed to vet medical professionals without onboarding them, failed to monitor a certain employee after repeated complaints have been made against them, etc. For this, you must prove that an employee’s negligence was committed while performing job duties (i.e., performing your surgery).
We understand that you may not want to deal with any of this right now, but it must be addressed for the sake of your physical, emotional, and financial well-being. So please allow a talented New York City neurological injuries lawyer from Mark L. Bodner, P.C., to make this legal process less burdensome for you overall. We will be happy to help and give you much-needed relief.