A Rhode Island neurosurgeon operated on the wrong side of a patient’s head, and the doctor is still practicing neurosurgery with no restrictions. According to a story in The Providence Journal:

On July 30, an 86-year-old man came to Rhode Island Hospital three days after a fall. He was found to have bleeding on the brain, and as he started to do poorly in the emergency room, he was transferred to the operating room for emergency surgery. Neither the patient’s medical history nor the consent form specified which side needed the surgery. When a nurse pointed out that the information was missing, Harrington filled in the blanks, relying on his memory rather than consulting the CT scan.

He cut open the wrong side. As soon as he realized the error, he operated on the correct side. The patient died a few days later, but the medical examiner has yet to determine whether the surgical error contributed to his death.

. . . In Harrington’s case, it happened more than once. In September 2006, he also operated on the wrong side of a patient’s head at Roger Williams Medical Center, but the Health Department did not sanction him because of mitigating circumstances.

If you or a family member has had surgery done on the wrong side of the body, you need legal representation to get just compensation for the injuries. Contact the law firm of Pritzker | Ruohonen toll-free at 1-888-377-8900 or submit the firm's online consultation form. The firm also represents families of patients who have died due to a medical error.

Source: Felice J. Freyer, "Doctor to blame in wrong-side surgery, panel says," The Providence Journal, October 14, 2007.

Surgical errors are common and can lead to serious injury or death. In an article in the medical journal Neurosurgery that reported on a study of 1108 elective neurosurgical procedures, a neurosurgeon recorded 2684 errors in 87.1% of the cases. 22.6% of the errors were considered major. 78.5% of the errors were deemed preventable.

The number of recorded major errors in these cases is staggering. During 1108 elective (not necessary) neurosurgical procedures, there were 606 major errors. When major surgical errors lead to serious injury, patients are usually faced with additional medical expenses and loss of income due to the need to take time off of work or the loss of a job. There are also pain and suffering and emotional distress issues. Compensation for these “damages” is called “compensatory damages.”

In neurosurgery error cases, it is important to have a medical malpractice attorney who has had experience with highly complex medical cases. In many cases, hospitals and surgeons will not admit the error, and it will be up to the attorney to prove the error, that it led to the injuries, and that the patient should be fairly compensated for all past and future damages. Even if an error is admitted, the attorneys for the hospitals and doctors will make every argument possible to avoid liability (having to compensate the patient).

To contact a medical malpractice attorney at Pritzker | Ruohonen, please call toll-free at 1-888-377-8900 or submit the firm’s online consultation form.

Source: S. Stone and M. Bernstein, “Prospective error recording in surgery: an analysis of 1108 elective neurosurgical cases,” Neurosurgery, June 2007, 60 (6): 1075-80; discussion 1080-82.

Medication error cases often involve errors during admittance to a hospital that lead to the administration of dangerous, sometimes fatal, doses of medication. In a recent case, a 10-year-old patient at Memorial Hermann Baptist Behavioral Health Center in Texas was given twice the recommended dosage of lithium carbonate. The medication error allegedly began with an admitting nurse incorrectly reporting the amount the patient had been prescribed and continued with doctors and other hospital personnel not catching the mistake. The young boy quickly suffered serious, permanent injury due to lithium carbonate overdose.

Here is a run down of some of the medical malpractice claims that can arise when a hospital gives a patient an overdose of a medication:

• Failure to take a proper history of current medications
• Failure to verify dosage of medications
• Failure to check for proper pediatric dosage
• Failing to assess proper dosage for patient by body weight
• Failure to have adequate policies and procedures in place to prevent medication overdose
• Failure to note and/or report responses to medication
• Failure to be aware of symptoms of a medication overdose
• Failure to timely diagnose an overdose of medication
• Failure to treat an overdose of medication

To contact a medical malpractice attorney at Pritzker | Ruohonen, please call toll-free at 1-888-377-8900 or submit the firm’s online consultation form.

Sources: Court Case No. E180-497 filed in SE Texas and David Yates, “Suit alleges hospital oblivious to boy's lithium overdose,” South East Texas Record, October 15, 2007.