Laparoscopic Surgery Errors

Laparoscopic surgery involves healthcare providers inserting small cameras through small incisions in the patient's body and making repairs to the structures within. Sometimes when laparoscopic surgery is available, healthcare providers recommend it over open surgery, but every situation should be evaluated by a competent doctor, who can recommend and sometimes carry out the appropriate course. Generally, laparoscopic surgery leaves only a small scar, while open surgeries can leave large areas of scarring. However, there are risks entailed by laparoscopic surgery and certain conditions for which it is demonstrably less effective than open surgery. In particular, there may be a greater risk of patient injury when a surgeon is only beginning to learn laparoscopic techniques on the job. If you were injured by laparoscopic surgery errors, you should discuss your case with the experienced Syracuse surgical errors and complications attorneys of DeFrancisco and Falgiatano.

Laparoscopic surgeons should recognize when they've cause injury during the procedure. In that case, they may need to call specialists into operating rooms. The specialist may need to attend to the bowels, blood vessels, nerves, or other structures that require repair. Laparoscopic surgery errors may involve a surgeon failing to notice an injury he caused and not calling a specialist. Another potential error is a surgeon’s failure to notice and correct an injury, such as a nick to an organ under surgery. A laparoscopic surgeon may not use antibiotics appropriately to guard against infection, which could result in a major infection, sepsis, or wrongful death. Or your laparoscopic surgeon may not monitor you closely after surgery and fail to notice complications or respond appropriately to them. Other laparoscopic surgical errors in Syracuse may involve hemorrhage, peritonitis, or bowel perforation.

Not every surgical error and complication during laparoscopic surgery counts as medical malpractice for which damages can be recovered. By New York law, we will need to file a certificate of merit with your complaint. This means we will need to consult a laparoscopic surgeon or other expert about whether your doctor failed to use the professional standard of care in your case, thereby causing injuries. The certificate we file will attest to our consultation with a licensed doctor and our belief, based on that consultation, your case is meritorious.

New York follows the locality rule. Your healthcare provider is supposed to follow the accepted practices of other providers who practice in the same geographic region and specialty. For instance, we may be able to hold your surgeon accountable if he failed to notice and repair your bowels after nicking them when a reasonably competent laparoscopic surgeon in Syracuse would observed the problem and called a specialist. We may also be able to pursue damages if, after the surgery, you had fever, difficulty urinating, and abdominal pain, but when you contacted your surgeon, he failed to follow up appropriately, such that you were severely injured and had to stay in hospital.

When too much gas is sent into the peritoneal cavity during laparoscopic surgery, the result may be respiratory acidosis, blood pressure, or hypothermia. If you suffer complications and your laparoscopic surgeon was to blame because he did not adequately monitor your reaction to the gas being injected into your abdomen before the surgery, where a reasonable Syracuse doctor would have, there may be liability.

If we can establish liability for laparoscopic surgery errors, we may be able to recover compensatory damages on your behalf. These will include your economic and noneconomic losses arising out of the errors. Damages may include medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages, and loss of enjoyment.

If you were harmed by a laparoscopic surgery error, you should talk to our lawyers about whether you have grounds to sue for damages. The seasoned Syracuse surgical errors and complications attorneys of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano represent patients and their families across upstate New York in Watertown, Rochester, Lyons, Auburn, Elmira, Utica, Cooperstown, Oswego, Lowville, Binghamton Canandaigua, Ithaca, Wampsville, Oneida, and Herkimer. Fill out our online form or call us at 833-200-2000.