Fact-Checked: Why Trust Surgical complications are a concern after even the simplest procedure. There are a variety of challenging complications that can arise during or after surgery.
Patients may experience unusual cardiac rhythms or issues with their blood pressure. They are at risk of infections and difficulty breathing. Complications are predictable and may not necessarily occur because of a medical mistake. Instead, they constitute known potential issues that arise due to the body’s response during or after surgical procedures.
Health care professionals are generally aware of the complications associated with different types of surgeries. A failure to properly screen patients for warning signs of complications during surgery and to monitor them for complications after surgery may constitute medical malpractice.
Could other professionals have handled the situation better?
Surgeons and their support teams are usually not directly responsible for a patient developing known complications. However, it is the responsibility of surgical professionals and hospital workers to watch for the warning signs of serious complications and take appropriate steps to minimize their severity.
Timely intervention can prevent an infection that begins at the surgical incision from becoming systemic and threatening the patient’s life. Appropriate monitoring can catch cardiac issues indicative of internal bleeding or a lingering adverse reaction to anesthesia.
Health care professionals should watch carefully for general complications and the complications commonly associated with the specific procedure the patient underwent. Patients should also receive education about likely complications so that they can advise healthcare workers about warning signs they know.
When surgeons and their support staff do not properly monitor patients or educate them about surgical risks, complications may go without treatment. They may then become much more difficult to address effectively. If another surgeon could have identified the complication and pursued treatment that limited the effect of the complication on the patient’s recovery, then the failure to identify the complication and order treatment could constitute malpractice.
Patients coping with the financial and medical aftermath of surgical malpractice, including a failure to diagnose common complications, may need assistance if they want to hold their surgeons accountable. Filing a medical malpractice lawsuit requires documentation and the insight of both legal and medical professionals who can validate that a surgeon didn’t adhere to current best practices.