Amputation Malpractice
Coming to grips with a decision to amputate a limb is a heartbreaking one that is all too often compounded when there is a medical mistake resulting in the amputation.
Such medical negligence generally falls into one of five categories:
- Human error in removing the wrong limb;
- Intraoperative mistakes made during a procedure for another reason;
- Failure to timely and appropriately diagnose and treat infection;
- Failure to ensure proper blood flow to a limb, sometimes caused by a medication allergy; and
- Human error in a pre-operative diagnosis.
Despite state-of-the-art advancements in how to appropriately document (pre-operatively) what part of the body is to be operated on, episodes of human error still occur, even when the body part is checked with the patient multiple times. In short, the errors sometimes begin with the simple erroneous recordation of the limb to be removed (right vs. left).
This information is then relayed to individuals in the operating room who mark the patient’s limb to be removed. Doctors are supposed to sign their signature on the body part to be amputated, and while one could assume patients are supposed to be part of the “limb identification” process, health care providers have overlooked asking for verification in the assumption they have the correct limb.
A second cause of erroneous amputations occurs when health care providers are operating on a limb during an operation and make a mistake during that procedure that results in the need to amputate that limb (when that was never the plan all along).
A third example of amputation error occurs when the physician is aware of the presence of an infection such as gangrene, attempts to remove the infected tissue or bone and stop the infection, but does so negligently, allowing for the continued spread of infection and ultimate need to amputate the limb. This error is the most common amputation error that our office sees.
A fourth example occurs in the setting of a known patient allergy to a particular medication, i.e., a patient’s allergy to Heparin, a blood thinner. A small percentage of patients who receive Heparin develop what is known as Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia (“HIT”), a condition in which the patient’s blood will begin to clot immediately upon the introduction of Heparin into their bloodstream. The end result is the cessation of blood flow to the limb or limbs and the death of the surrounding tissue, leading to amputation or even worse, death.
Read more about HIT from the Clevland Clinic here.
Finally, amputation errors can occur in the pre-operative setting, again due to human error. The most common type of error that our office sees in this setting is one in which the physician negligently diagnoses a patient with cancer in a limb and advises the removal of that limb. Post-operatively when the tissue from that limb is examined by a pathologist, it is discovered that the physician negligently diagnosed the patient with cancer, when in fact he or she did not have cancer. In short, the procedure to remove the limb was unnecessary.
If you or a loved one has been affected by amputation malpractice, it is critical to have an informed, detail-oriented, and dedicated medical malpractice attorney who will tirelessly advocate for you and your case. Please get in touch with Andrew G. Slutkin and Ethan S. Nochumowitz for a free consultation at 800-385-2243.
Disclaimer: This page is informative in nature. The information contained herein is not to be considered legal advice and there is no attorney-client relationship formed between Silverman Thompson and the reader.