Claiming compensation for surgical errors
Having surgery for any condition can be an extremely stressful time. Whilst the vast majority of surgical procedures performed each each in the UK are carried out successfully and to a high standard, mistakes and errors do happen. What is already a stressful situation can therefore be made much worse if something does go wrong during your surgery.
There is risk associated to all types of surgery, however minor the surgery may be. Therefore not all complications and side affects of surgical procedures will be due to the negligence of the surgeon or hospital. In such cases where your injury has not been caused by any negligence, you would not be entitled to make a medical negligence compensation claim. However, if you have suffered a physical or mental injury due to negligence during surgery, you could be entitled to make a surgery error compensation claim.
As with all medical negligence claims, if you have been injured due to a surgical error you have a three year period within which your claim must be made. This three year period would normally begin on the date of your surgery. However, in some circumstances you may not be aware that a problem has occurred until a later date. In these cases the three year period would not begin on the date of your surgery, but the date you became aware of the error and injury.
Some examples of surgery and surgical errors that could give rise to a potential clinical negligence claim include the following:
- Performing the wrong type of operation
- Organs being accidentally perforated
- Items left inside the body during surgery, such as swabs and surgical implements
- Performing operations on the wrong organ or body part
- Damaging nerves, tissue and veins during surgery
- Infections caused by dirty surgical implements
If you have been injured due to a surgical error and would like to know if you are entitled to make a surgery error compensation claim, contact the National Accident Helpline on 0800 6783 601 or complete our online personal injury claim form
