Losing a Limb Due to Malpractice - Prevalence of “Never Events”

When we seek care or treatment from a medical professional, we expect that our treatment will be safe and effective, and certainly not leave us in a worse condition than had we not sought care. Mistakes do happen, however, and when they occur due to negligence a person may be able to recover in a legal action for professional malpractice or basic tort negligence. These kinds of adverse events can range from misdiagnosis of a condition to leaving a surgical instrument inside a patient. The latter type of event is referred to in the medical community as a “never event,” meaning the type of serious medical error that should never occur. The term was first coined by the National Quality Forum (NQF) in 2001, and the list contains 29 distinct events, grouped into the following categories:

• Surgical or Invasive Events
• Product or Device Events
• Patient Protection Events
• Care Management Events
• Environmental Events
• Radiologic Events
• Potential Criminal Events

Perhaps the most shocking of these incidents is when a patient has the wrong limb amputated or the wrong surgical procedure is performed. According to our Hammond, IN medical malpractice lawyer, patients who are the victims of these kinds of events often have to deal with the ramifications of the medical error for the rest of their lives. As a result, the recovery in these types of cases is often quite substantial.

How common are “never” events?

According to a news release issued by Johns Hopkins Medicine, surgical never events occur at least 4,000 times per year. Some estimated statistics included in the report include that a surgeon:

• Leaves a foreign object in a patient’s body 39 times per week
• Performs the wrong procedure 20 times per week
• Operates on the wrong body site 20 times per week

There are systems in place to ensure that these types of mistakes do not occur, such as marking the part of the body to be operated on prior to putting a patient under or performing sponge counts at the end of a surgery. Unfortunately, these events continue to occur and patients are left to deal with the consequences. The Johns Hopkins release, citing the online journal Surgery, indicates an estimated 80,000 of these events occurred between 1999 and 2010, an estimate which researchers believe is likely lower than the actual figure. Fortunately for victims of medical malpractice, Indiana law allows people who injured through medical malpractice to recover through a malpractice lawsuit.

If you or a loved one has suffered an injury that you believe may have been caused by the negligence of a medical professional or other hospital staff, you may be entitled to significant compensation through a medical malpractice lawsuit. In order to determine whether you have a claim, you should have your case reviewed by an experienced Indiana medical malpractice attorney. If you suspect you negligence caused your injury, you should contact an Indianapolis medical malpractice lawyer as soon as possible. These types of claims are subject to a strict statute of limitations, meaning that there is a limited amount of time in which you are legally able to assert a claim.