What If A Surgeon Made A Mistake

what happens if a surgeon makes a mistake sure we're all human but we're not talking about misspelling your sister's name on her birthday cake yeah Brainerd she's still mad about that this is much more serious some surgeries by Nature mean putting lives on the line so making a mistake could have much more permanent even dire consequences don't worry brain you're your doctor looks trustworthy you'll be fine or will you look mistakes happen we are all human and are prone to the occasional slip-up nothing wrong with that but when slip-ups occur in very serious situations like surgery that's when things aren't as easy to forgive and forget Hospital mishaps may be great for the plot of Jane the Virgin which if you haven't seen it basically Jane accidentally gets pregnant because her doctor mistook her for another patient who is receiving artificial insemination that day but in real life no big no but hold on here before we all start thinking being switched at birth or operating on the wrong patient is a common occurrence let's go to the facts according to statistics United States doctors accidentally leave medical tools or supplies inside a patient they are operating on about 39 times a week also a doctor will accidentally operate on the wrong body part about 20 times a week and will operate on the wrong patient also at about 20 times a week now maybe that sounds like a lot but millions of surgeries are performed each year in the United States which means hundreds of thousands are performed each week it's rare brain iord very rare but let's break it down what exactly can go wrong in a surgery and what is it called when this occurs wrong site surgery is the term used when a doctor performs surgery on the wrong organ or wrong part of the body this case of mistaken identity can be pretty darn serious there have been cases of doctors amputating the wrong body parts oh you heard that right wrong patient surgery also known as unnecessary surgery is exactly what it sounds like the doctor has mistakenly fixed up someone who didn't need to be fixed these mishaps can be particularly harmful because of the lasting effects they can have on the patient surgical instruments getting left in someone's body is another type of mishap most Hospital protocols will have doctors or nurses do a count of all the tools and sponges before and after surgery to ensure that this doesn't happen but not all hospitals require this and not all medical staff do this this is why it's important to know your doctor and hospitals reputation before a big surgery do your research Brainerd it could save you a lot of hassle in the long run factions are also considered a mishap from a surgery if a doctor uses unsanitary or unsterilized instruments than they haven't done their job right and the patient can be in a lot of trouble because of it damages to nerves and other nearby internal organs are other mistakes that can happen nerve damage can occur if the anesthetics used to put the patient under are administered in the wrong dosage and organs are fragile things if a nearby organ to the one being worked on is bumped and accidentally punctured well then that patient may now be in a worse position than when they started before heading to the hospital we know Brainerd it's not fun to hear about all these mistakes that take place especially that working on the wrong patient one I mean that one in particular seems like it could really mess you up but once again statistics show us that there's no need to freak out researchers found when looking at 1752 cases of patient identification mishaps 1601 of those cases had no harm come to the patients you heard that right ninety 1.4 percent of the time there were no lasting effects that came to someone who had the wrong surgery when a patient was harmed the damage was only temporary on 146 locations and there was only one case found where the patient was permanently harmed so what we're trying to say here is on top of this already being something that's extremely rare it's even more rare that it'll have lasting effects thank goodness right but how in the heck do these mistakes happen well one common theme found is how there are now more limitations on working of medical personnel which directly translates to more patients being transferred to another staff member and thus there is more of a chance for a communication error to occur in fact because hospitals collect patient information in such a standardized manner we know that it is during the clinical encounter phase of surgery or when the clinician will meet with the patient to talk about what the best course of action to take will be that most mistakes happen 72.3% of identification errors happen during this time and only 12.6% of errors happen during the intake face or when patients are getting scheduled for their treatments we've talked a lot about all the mistakes that can go wrong on the hospital side of things but what about on our end brainerd what if you were the cause of a mishap what if you say moved during surgery and caused the doctor to make a mistake could you get your money back even sue the hospital the answer to that one opens up a whole new subject that is not so cut and dry we are now getting into the legal side of things and that means determining medical malpractice medical malpractice is when a mistake or injury took place that could have been avoided based on the standard of care of the hospital so let's say you're checking your phone while being worked on thus causing a mistake to take place the legal side of things says that you would have to determine what a skilled surgeon would have done in similar circumstances and how your surgeon didn't measure up and also that it was them that caused you harm we gotta say the phone checking mishap would be on you don't secretly take selfies during surgery brain yard that's messed up speaking of medical malpractice oh boy do we have some crazy stories to tell you and also some instances of crazy amounts of money being awarded to the patient let's start off with the first-ever case of a medical malpractice lawsuit this occurred in the year eleven sixty four in England known as Everett vs. Hoskins where a servant and his master were awarded damages because their physician practiced and we quote unwholesome medicine but judging by the date 1164 we'd say all doctors during this time left a little to be desired the first US medical malpractice case happened in 1794 when a doctor performed surgery on his wife claiming that he could do it in a skillful safe manner but unfortunately due to this surgery his wife passed away and the plaintiff was awarded 40 English pounds which may not seem like a lot and well it really isn't when you compare it to these more recent cases in 2006 a jury in Florida awarded Allen Navarro 216 point seven million dollars after he won his medical malpractice case now before you think this sounds like Allen just won the lottery consider this he was left permanently brain-damaged and will now use a wheelchair for the rest of his life because doctors misdiagnosed his stroke symptoms he continuously told medical staff that his family had a history of strokes but the doctors didn't listen and diagnosed him with sinusitis a condition where the tissues in your sinus swell lo and behold Allen ended up being right and this misdiagnosis caused Allen to not only go into a coma but now he has limited cognitive abilities and is at risk of suffocating each time he eats food as a direct result of the damage the doctors caused suddenly 216 point seven million dollars that doesn't seem like enough money does it 2014 saw another huge win for a plaintiff who claimed medical malpractice when Tiffany Applewhite sued medical staff because they gave her mother terrible advice when Tiffany went into anaphylactic shock which caused her heart to stop Tiffany's mother called 911 and when medical personnel arrived they not only arrived without the proper life-saving medical equipment they advised her not to drive Tiffany to the hospital and instead told her to wait for the next ambulance this bad advice directly resulted in Tiffany being paralyzed and having severe brain damage it's not a fun subject we know but we want to shed a little light here hospitals are becoming more and more aware that mistakes happen and that they are at fault in the past many doctors and medical staff members have shrugged off the responsibilities with little more than a response like stuff happens but things are changing now now its more common than ever for hospitals to have programs in place that own up to mistakes apologies and full disclosures of what went wrong are now immediately given to the patient and compensation will be given based on the severity of the mishap honestly everyone seems to win in this scenario in Michigan after applying these programs the amount of lawsuits was cut almost in half as well as hospitals saving two million dollars in litigation costs these programs aren't everywhere but because of their success they just might be so what can hospitals do to stop mistakes well in many cases it comes down to the system better safety checks tagging all instruments with a tracking chip so if they are left inside a patient a quick scan will show them and creating an environment where all members of a surgical team feel comfortable speaking out when they see something going wrong are the best we can do these extra steps and standardization may be tedious but it can save lives in the long run we say it's worth it here's the thing Brainard doctors are human mistakes will happen maybe one day in a thousand years when surgeries are completely automated by machines will not have to worry about human error but even then as we've heard sometimes miss filings happen and the wrong doctor will be sent to the wrong room but don't fret these scenarios are very very rare it's all good Rainier you'll be up and running again in no time ready to help us answer all the crazy and weird sighs questions the world has to offer [Music] you [Music]

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Views: 134,744

Rating: 4.895268 out of 5

Keywords: Brainiac, surgery, medicine, hospitals, medical malpractice, lawsuit, surgical tools, surgical mistakes, doctors, wrong patient

Id: K_27MrWPr2c

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020