For a patient, undergoing surgery may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For the professional operating on the patient, surgery may just be part of their daily grind. In fact, they may perform numerous procedures on any given workday, increasing their risk of...
Retained surgical items (RSIs) are items that a surgeon leaves inside a patient’s body after surgery. Examples include surgical sponges, needles and surgical instruments like drains, clamps and retractors. Leaving foreign objects in the body is harmful. It can lead to...
Anesthetists do more than just put you to sleep during an operation. They also monitor your vital signs, respond to emergencies and collaborate with the surgical team to ensure everything goes smoothly. It’s a high-stakes job that demands precision. A single mishap...
Wrong-site surgery is a never event. It is a serious medical error that should never occur. It can lead to disabilities, long-term health issues and many other complications for patients. It is one of the most serious examples of medical malpractice. Doctors must try...
Surgical errors are relatively rare. Most procedures do not result in any major complications. Even when they do, they are often unpredictable issues, such as a poor response to anesthesia. However, some surgeries have poor outcomes because of mistakes made by the...
Despite years of textbook education and then hands-on training, surgeons sometimes make egregious mistakes in operating rooms. Dozens of people every week undergo the wrong procedure or the right procedure performed on the wrong part of their body. Surgeons also...
You likely would not expect to wake up from surgery to find a surgeon left a pair of scissors in your body. However, it can happen. It is possible that over one thousand people are victims of retained objects in the body every year. A common type of medical...
There’s been a lot of discussion in the media lately around aging and what makes someone “too old” to do a particular job. Often, people must decide that for themselves. However, people aren’t always the best judges of their own limitations as they get older....
Surgery is innately dangerous because it involves cutting the human body. Even with years of professional training and a precisely controlled environment, countless things can go wrong. Every year, there are thousands of preventable mistakes ranging from the wrong...
One example of medical malpractice is wrong-site surgery. This can be highly detrimental to the patient, causing them immediate harm that may not be repairable. Even when it can be repaired, it still necessitates a second surgery or further medical treatment. But...